Almost fully-formed human brain grown in lab

Researchers from the US are claiming they have grown an almost fully-formed human brain in a laboratory.

A team from Ohio State University have created a brain that is the size of a pencil eraser from human skin tissue, and hope it will be useful in solving neurological illnesses, the Guardian has reported.

The miniature brain is at the same stage of a five-week-old foetus, but is not fully conscious, and doesn’t transmit any emotions or feelings.

Dr Rene Anand of Ohio State University says the team have managed to recreate 99 percent of a real brain's cell types and genes.

There have been previous attempts to grown a brain but these have resulted in only partial constructions.

"We have grown the entire brain from the get-go," Dr Anand said.

Dr Anand says that this new work could change the future of medicine.

"If you have an inherited disease, for example, you could give us a sample of skin cells, we could make a brain and then ask what's going on."

At this stage the brain is only being used to study post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries.