The Magazine

Creating Neanderthal 'Mini-Brains' With Ancient DNA, CRISPR

Bringing ancient brains back to life may unlock clues into human brain evolution.

Jan 1, 2019 6:00 AMNov 18, 2019 3:14 AM

Alysson Muotri, a geneticist at the University of California, San Diego, leads one of the teams using ancient DNA and cutting-edge gene editing to create Neanderthal “mini-brains” — rudimentary, pea-sized organoids of our evolutionary kin, grown in petri dishes. The researchers hope to learn more about brain evolution and even when and how conditions such as autism and schizophrenia originated. | UC San Diego Health

For most of our history, Homo sapiens haven’t been the only humans on the planet. At least half a dozen other species are members of the genus Homo, all now extinct. Our closest evolutionary kin, Neanderthals, died off only about 40,000 years ago and shared many traits with us, including large brains.

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