Nita Farahany

Stories

Mice with human brain cells open a new path to studying brain disease

As of September 2026: Served unpaid on the external ethics board guiding the research

Stanford scientists created mice that grow lab-grown human neurons where their own brain cells were — the deepest integration yet of human tissue into an animal brain. The team depleted roughly 14 million native mouse cortical neurons and gave 4 million human ones room to expand.

Updated Sep 16

Notable Quotes

"Do we treat it with greater ethical care than we treat traditional mice? I think probably so."

from Mice with human brain cells open a new path to studying brain disease · Updated Sep 16

"This brings us into new gray areas for which there are not clear ethical guidelines or norms."

from Mice with human brain cells open a new path to studying brain disease · Updated Sep 16

"Do you stop a study before an animal develops consciousness, if it has the potential or is on its way to develop consciousness? Does it have different interests or rights that we would assign to it?"

from Mice with human brain cells open a new path to studying brain disease · Updated Sep 16

"My instinct is to err on the side of caution with research like this rather than to be more permissive."

from Mice with human brain cells open a new path to studying brain disease · Updated Sep 16