It measures only one Millimeter – the whitish, inconspicuous, in a nutrient solution of floating cell clusters. However, it represents an important step forward for the biomedical science and a Central object of research of the Berlin Institute for Medical systems biology (BIMSB), German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday afternoon at the opening event of the new BIMSB building in Berlin-Mitte have a look at this “cerebral organoid” is to throw.

it will make Science Fiction come true

“the limits to breaking up” to the Institute, which has emerged in the past three years to around 41 million euros (of which almost a Million by the Berlin Senate) to one of the Humboldt University for a symbolic Euro to the available site at the Hanover road. This philosophy of the BIMSB-founder and conductor Nikolaus Rajewsky not only fits to Berlin, because the building stands next to the place to where the time of the Wall the Federal Republic of your “Permanent representation”.

From skin cells of patients, only stem cells and then “miniature brains” breed, the so-called “Cerebral organoid”…photo: Agnieszka Rybak-Wolf, MDC

In Rajewskys researchers in the world, it is mainly the boundaries between the disciplines, which need to be overcome. Because there is a need for cooperation of biochemists, as well as cell and molecular biologists with experts for the analysis of large amounts of data or nano-technologists to technical reality, what was a few years ago Science Fiction: to be able to every single one of the millions of cells of an organ such as brain or liver separately investigate.

The cells at work

in fact, the some 250 researchers of the BIMSB can watch in the meantime – in the laboratory – exactly. You can use a tissue to a given time – for example, when it threatens to develop in individual cells “dissolve” and with modern genome sequencing methods to see which genes were active at that Moment. “We look to the cells to a certain extent at work, so as you read in the genome, in the book of life and the simultaneous for millions of cells,” said Rajewsky.

This mass of data, which is why the new building provides not only laboratories, but also a lot of space for computer workstations for data analysis. “We want to be able to learn and then predict how a cell changed in the course of a disease.” This mass of “single-cell sequencing,” recently named the journal “Science” as one of the technical breakthroughs of the year 2018 – and the development work of the BIMSB scientists, from the location of the Max-Delbrück-Centrum in the book to the middle.

skin-do brain

the Chancellor is to observe how the researchers thousands of cells locks through fine channels, in order to collect the contained DNA molecules and to analyze. The miniature brain, which is also examined in this way, is a replica of the brain of a patient obtained from the skin cells were transformed into stem cells and then developed brain tissue – in the laboratory. “The cells of these miniature brains to function like a real brain, but of course without sense-perception,” says Rajewsky.

The special feature is that the cells of the Minihirns contain the same genetic makeup as the Patient, so also in gene mutations, the diseases cause or contribute to. “We can see with the help of the organoid research now, the diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, which are generally regarded as diseases of old age, much earlier, than we thought previously,” says Rajewsky. The advantage of the cerebral organoids that can be used to check which gene alterations sick and which are healthy. “We can change in the cells of the cerebral organoid genes, to see whether we get the disease or how the brain responds to it.”

Organoids for tailor-made therapies

Perhaps the Organoids of the important human organs could in the future, many animals in basic biomedical research replace. “The question is, how far can we come up with organo halides, therefore, is Central,” says Martin Lohse, Chairman of the management Board and the Scientific Board of the Max-Delbrück-Centrum, belongs to it also after moving to the middle. “Cerebral organoids are a rather imperfect representation of the brain, so the hope is big, but modesty is required.” On the study of model organisms, one could not do without, therefore, an important task of the BIMSB is the Organoid technology to develop your application and explore possibilities.

A spiral staircase in DNA-optic connects all the floors in the new BIMSB Institute.Photo: Horst Krüger, MDC

Meanwhile, the BIMSB researchers will use a proven model organisms, including flies (Drosophila melanogaster), worms (Caenorhabditis elegans), and Zebra fish (Danio rerio). “The advantage of this Fly is: will fly,” says Lohse. “This is a complex organism, the functioning of which can be seen in the artificially created organoid still may not go out, for example, the comparability with the Situation in the people.”

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miniature brains from stem cells, let the brain

Stefanie Uhrig

grow, Nonetheless, some of the Organoid-systems not only for research purposes but rather for an improved, more tailored therapy is used: “In the Netherlands, for example, Organoids from a patient are made in order to test it in the laboratory, the method of treatment and to find those that works best,” says Rajewsky. The BIMSB to work closely with the Charité, could this “Science Fiction” for the Berlin patient-soon a reality.