Informant38

A way of keeping slices of living brain tissue alive for weeks has developed by a biotech company. This will allow drug developers to study the effect of chemicals on entire neural networks, not just individual cells.

"We are building stripped-down mini-brains, if you will, directly on a chip," says Miro Pastrnak, business development director of Tensor Biosciences of Irvine, California.

He says the "brain-on-a-chip" could help drugs developers find better treatments for a host of neurological and psychiatric disorders, from Alzheimer's disease to schizophrenia. Tensor may already have found a more effective treatment for anxiety this way.