September 11, 2018
Kelly Wong
Kelly Wong is the social media manager at The Royal Institution of Australia. She has a Bachelor of Biomedical Science, Allergy and Immunology, Hons Class I.
Researchers may have found what sets human brains apart from those of other animals. They discovered a new type of human brain cell, never seen in rodent models.
The team, led by Eszter Boldog from the University of Szeged in Hungary, called the new cells ‘rosehip’ neurons because their axons spread out from the cell centre to form dense bundles, resembling a rose after it has shed its petals.
This discovery points to why human brain diseases can’t always be modelled in laboratory animals.
The research was published in the journal Nature Neuroscience.
