Scientists Gave Human Brain Cells to a Rat. Why?

Live Q&As, early releases, support the channel: Discord invite: Scientists transplanted human cerebral organoids (“minibrains“) into rats, to better study brain disorders. The neurons grown in vivo looked more like mature human brain cells than those grown in vitro, and they made better models of Timothy syndrome. The human minibrains formed deep connections with the rat brains, received sensory information, and drove the rat’s behavior. Points of Clarification (Q&A based on common comments) - Why didn’t the rat reject the transplant, which frequently happens with organ transplants? /// They used immunocompromised (athymic) rats to avoid the problem of the immune system attacking the transplanted tissue. - Was the licking behavior really due to optogenetics, or just seeing the blue light? /// A separate group of rats (control group), with a transplant but no optogenetics, also completed the red/bl