[K-SCIENCE] Brain Cell Incubator

This six-year-old girl began suffering from an infection in her brain last year.

She is now getting her physical rehab treatment due to paralysis.

However, her illness is difficult to treat because the damaged brain cells are hardly to be restored.

[Kang Hoon-Chul, pediatric neurologist, Severance Hospital]
"There is no way to revive dead brain cells. Therefore, many studies on the neural stem cell transplant have been carried out since the information on the stem cell therapy was made public."

The little patient now needs a brain cell therapy -- transplanting healthy brain cells into her diseased brain.

A difficult problem in the therapy was technology to grow the cells in quantity, and a South Korean team of researchers has developed a brain cell culture system."

The cells cultured in the new system have been transplanted into mice with stroke-damaged brains.

The research team found that the cells show higher activities, along with a longer survival time than those grown in a conventional culture medium.

The new system, just like an incubator, is capable of growing brain cells in a safe and effective manner.

[Cho Seung-Woo, professor, Dept. of Biotechnology, Yonsei University]
"There are various parts and many different types of neural cells in brain tissues. So, we also plan to carry out studies to develop a novel brain cell therapy with a cell culture platform that is more customized for the brain tissues."

There has been much attention towards the results of this study as they are expected to make a breakthrough in a complete cure of brain diseases.