A team led by biologist Jürgen Knoblich has received the State Prize to promote replacement methods for animal experiments. The researchers of the Institute for Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) in Vienna breed brain tissue in the laboratory to explore diseases.
Since medication often fails in the development of brain diseases, thousands of animal experiments would be performed for free, said molecular biologist Jürgen Knoblich. The technology of the so -driven brain organoid helps to reduce this number.
For the excellent work, which was published in the “Cellstam” Journal, the team generated the first author Catarina Martins-Costa stem cells from blood cells of two patients. In this, the two halves of the brain are not connected by a nerve strand due to a change in genetic material. Three -dimensional brain organoid of this lets this grow.
Gene therapy in the test phase
Healthy organoids are linked by many nerve processes, also known as axons. The research team discovered that in nerve cells with such a mutation, those groups of genes are less active that promote the maturation of neurons and the formation of axons. An Axon leads electrical impulses.
In the meantime, the scientists are working on testing gene therapy for affected patients.
“This prize is a strong signal for the importance of scientific excellence and the responsibility of research to actively shape social progress,” said science minister Eva-Maria Holzleitner (Spö) in a broadcast. The Vienna Institute research is based on clinical data and in vitro models. According to the Ministry of Science, Knoblich, Nina Corsini and Martins Costa received 10,000 euros.
Source: Krone
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