“Mini Brains” That Grew Eyes and How the FDA Saved Babies
Curiosity Weekly
Warner Bros. Discovery
4.6 • 963 Ratings
🗓️ 5 October 2021
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Learn about stem cell “mini brains” that grew eyes and how the FDA prevented an epidemic of birth defects in the 1960s.
Scientists grew stem cell 'mini brains' that developed mini-eyes on their own by Cameron Duke
- Gabriel, E., Albanna, W., Pasquini, G., Ramani, A., Josipovic, N., Mariappan, A., Schinzel, F., Karch, C. M., Bao, G., Gottardo, M., Suren, A. A., Hescheler, J., Nagel-Wolfrum, K., Persico, V., Rizzoli, S. O., Altmüller, J., Riparbelli, M. G., Callaini, G., Goureau, O., & Papantonis, A. (2021). Human brain organoids assemble functionally integrated bilateral optic vesicles. Cell Stem Cell. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stem.2021.07.010
- Starr, M. (2021). Scientists Grew Stem Cell “Mini Brains”. Then, The Brains Sort-of Developed Eyes. ScienceAlert. https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-used-stem-cells-to-make-mini-brains-they-grew-rudimentary-eyes
The FDA never approved thalidomide, and that saved American babies by Briana Brownell
- James, A. J. (2021, August 17). How a “stubborn” Canadian saved thousands of American babies from birth defects. Nationalpost; National Post. https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/how-a-stubborn-canadian-saved-thousands-of-american-babies-from-birth-defects
- Phillips, S. (2020, March 9). How a courageous physician-scientist saved the U.S. from a birth-defects catastrophe. Uchicagomedicine.org; UChicago Medicine. https://www.uchicagomedicine.org/forefront/biological-sciences-articles/courageous-physician-scientist-saved-the-us-from-a-birth-defects-catastrophe
- Office of the Commissioner. (2019). Frances O. Kelsey. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/fda-history-exhibits/frances-oldham-kelsey-medical-reviewer-famous-averting-public-health-tragedy
- McNeill, L. (2017, May 8). The Woman Who Stood Between America and a Generation of “Thalidomide Babies.” Smithsonian Magazine; Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/woman-who-stood-between-america-and-epidemic-birth-defects-180963165/
Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to learn something new every day with Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer. Still curious? Get exclusive science shows, nature documentaries, and more real-life entertainment on discovery+! Go to https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity to start your 7-day free trial. discovery+ is currently only available for US subscribers.
Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/mini-brains-that-grew-eyes-and-how-the-fda-saved-babies
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hi, you're about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from |
| 0:05.0 | Curiosity.com. I'm Cody Gough. And I'm Ashley Hamer. Today you'll learn about how |
| 0:09.6 | scientists grew stem cell mini brains that developed many eyes on their own and how the FDA saved |
| 0:16.4 | American babies from an epidemic of birth defects in the 1960s. |
| 0:21.1 | With satisfy some curiosity. |
| 0:23.0 | Scientists recently announced that they had grown many brains in a lab and got those |
| 0:30.0 | many brains to grow their own many eyes. I know it sounds like we're a little early for Halloween, but this |
| 0:39.3 | result will help us to better understand how eyes develop and how to treat and prevent certain |
| 0:45.3 | eye diseases. |
| 0:47.3 | Technically these little lab-grown brains are called brain organoids. They're made from special human pluripotent |
| 0:55.1 | stem cells which are cells that can turn into almost any other type of cell in the |
| 1:00.4 | body. So like in the basal layer of your skin you have what are called |
| 1:05.1 | multi potent stem cells. Those can develop into different types of cells as |
| 1:10.6 | long as they're types of skin cells. |
| 1:14.0 | Scientists figured out how to make |
| 1:16.0 | multi-potent stem cells behave like pluripotent stem cells |
| 1:21.0 | so they could develop into basically whatever they told it to. |
| 1:25.0 | Nerves, skin, or in this case, brain tissue. But I want to stress the word |
| 1:31.1 | tissue. Brain organoids are a far cry from growing |
| 1:35.3 | sentient brains in a jar, so don't worry about that. Instead they're just bits of brain |
| 1:41.5 | tissue grown in a dish and they don't think or feel things |
| 1:45.6 | the way a normal brain would. These quote unquote mini brains are often used |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Warner Bros. Discovery, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Warner Bros. Discovery and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.