Stem cell modelling to aid schizophrenia: UOW researchers

Dec. 2, 2014, 7:03 p.m.

University of Wollongong researchers are using living human stem cells to build brain tissue that could one day be used to treat neural diseases like schizophrenia and epilepsy.

Stem cell expert Professor Jeremy Crook is working on neural diseases. Picture: GREG TOTMAN

University of Wollongong researchers are using living human stem cells to build brain tissue that could one day be used to treat neural diseases like schizophrenia and epilepsy.

The practice is called disease modelling and is intended to offer a more relevant alternative to animal testing.

Stem cell expert Professor Jeremy Crook believes tissue in development at Innovation Campus' Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES) is two to three years away from the point where it could be used to test drug compounds.

Researchers also hope to identify cells within the lab-born tissue that could be recruited by the brain and integrated into the site of an injury or disease.

"The other option might be to use these [systems] to optimise biomaterial medical devices that could be implanted and interact on the cells of the brain," Professor Crook said.

"For example, in the case of epilepsy ... normalising cell function to prevent the onset of a seizure and the same with schizophrenia - you might be able to prevent the onset of a schizophrenic episode."

The tissue is made using natural stem cells applied through a 3D printer.

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Stem cell modelling to aid schizophrenia: UOW researchers