Psych Central News
Schizophrenia Research Dives Into the Petri Dish
“Obviously, we don’t want to remove someone’s brain cells to experiment on, so re-creating the patient’s brain cells in a petri dish is the next best thing for research purposes and drug screening,” said research leader Gong Chen, Ph.D., professor of biology at Penn State University.
“The most exciting part of this research is that it offers the promise of direct disease modeling, allowing for the creation, in a petri dish, of mature human neurons that behave a lot like neurons that grow naturally in the human brain.”
Chen believes that the method could lead to customized treatments for individual patients based on their own genetic and cellular information. He said that, in previous research, scientists had found a way to reprogram skin cells from patients to become unspecialized or undifferentiated pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs).
“A pluripotent stem cell is a kind of blank slate,” Chen said. “During development, such stem cells differentiate into many diverse, specialized cell types, such as a muscle cell, a brain cell, or a blood cell. So, after generating iPSCs from skin cells, researchers then can culture them to become brain cells, or neurons, which can be studied safely in a Petri dish.”
Now, in the new study, researchers have found a way to differentiate iPSCs into mature human neurons much more effectively, generating cells that behave like neurons in the brain. Chen explained that, in their natural environment, neurons are always found in close proximity to star-shaped cells called astrocytes, which are abundant in the brain and help neurons function correctly.
“Because neurons are adjacent to astrocytes in the brain, we predicted that this direct physical contact might be an integral part of neuronal growth and health,” said Chen.
To test this hypothesis, the team began by culturing iPSC-derived neural stem cells, which are stem cells that have the potential to become neurons. These cells were cultured on top of a one-cell-thick layer of astrocytes so that the two cell types were physically touching each other.
“We found that these neural stem cells cultured on astrocytes differentiated into mature neurons much more effectively,” Chen said, contrasting them with other neural stem cells that were cultured alone in a petri dish. “It was almost as if the astrocytes were cheering the stem cells on, telling them what to do, and helping them fulfill their destiny to become neurons.”
Next, the researchers used an electrophysiology recording technique to show that cells grown on astrocytes had many more synaptic events—signals sent out from one nerve cell to the others. Then, after just one week, the newly differentiated neurons began firing action potentials — the rapid electrical excitation signal that occurs in all neurons in the brain.
Finally, the researchers added human neural stem cells to a mixture with mouse neurons. “We found that, after just one week, there was a lot of ‘cross-talk’ between the mouse neurons and the human neurons,” Chen said.
He explained that “cross-talk” occurs when one neuron contacts its neighbors and releases a neurotransmitter to modulate its neighbor’s activity.
“Previous researchers could only obtain brain cells from deceased patients who had suffered from diseases such as Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia, and autism,” Chen said. “Now, researchers can take skin cells from living patients — a safe and minimally invasive procedure — and convert them into brain cells that mimic the activity of the patient’s own brain cells.”
With this method, clinicians would know how a certain drug would affect a particular patient’s own brain cells, without even trying the drug — eliminating the risk of serious side effects.
“The patient can be his or her own guinea pig for the design of his or her own treatment, without having to be experimented on directly,” he said.
Source: Stem Cell Research
Man using a microscope photo by shutterstock.
World of Psychology
How I Create: Q&A with Creativity Coach Miranda Hersey
This month I’m excited to share my interview with Miranda Hersey. Hersey wears many creative hats. She’s a writer and editor, creativity coach, and host of the blog Studio Mothers. And she’s a mom of five!
I’ve already interviewed Hersey for several creativity pieces, and I love her interesting insights and valuable tips. Her e-book on creativity and motherhood is excellent. (I shared a few of her tips here.)
And her mission is powerful: to help others live deeply satisfying, creative lives.
Hersey’s work has appeared in many publications, including the Boston Globe, the Boston Globe Magazine, Wild Apples, Sun Magazine, Bay Area Parent, the Parent Review, and Exceptional Parent.
Her short story, “Learning to Cook,” was shortlisted for the 2004 Raymond Carver Short Fiction Award. She lives in rural Massachusetts, happily overrun with people, books, and animals.
This is without a doubt one of my favorite interviews. I hope you enjoy it, too!
1. Do you incorporate creativity-boosting activities into your daily routine? If so, what activities do you do?
In between morning meditation and getting the family out the door, I start every day reading the New York Times in hard copy. The paper is full of fascinating stories about human beings, the things that we do to each other, and the many ways in which we make art.
I read the paper in its print edition as opposed to online because it’s tangible, easy to put down and pick up, and isn’t accompanied by the black hole of the Internet, e-mail, and Facebook.
It takes me about 90 minutes to read the entire weekday paper (sports section excluded). I don’t usually have time for that, so I read as much as I can on any given day.
Journaling is also part of my morning routine — a key part of sifting out the detritus that can interfere with creative work. In addition to clearing my head, I use my journal to reinforce my intentions for the day. Reading (books, as opposed to the newspaper) is also an essential daily activity.
2. What are your inspirations for your work?
What inspires me most is seeing other people show up and do their work. The commitment of others motivates me like nothing else: reading Poets & Writers and seeing who’s published what and who’s won which award or grant; Bookmarks Magazine and the New York Times Book Review are shots in the arm. I love reading interviews with working writers that delve into their daily lives and practices.
As for actual nuggets of inspiration that make their way into my writing, it’s all about using prose to make sense of the often unfathomable experience of life — while telling compelling stories that resonate with the reader. I use a lot of autobiographical material as launching points.
Many years ago, my friend Roland Pease (poet, editor, and publisher) shared with me this Grace Paley quote: “Write what you don’t know about what you do know.” It’s the best writing advice I’ve ever received.
3. There are many culprits that can crush creativity, such as distractions, self-doubt and fear of failure. What tends to stand in the way of your creativity? How do you overcome those obstacles?
I used to worry a lot more about whether or not my work was any good. Now I accept the fact that any work-in-progress will on some days seem brilliant and on other days seem like certifiable drivel. That’s just how it is.
As a writer and as a coach I also buy into the paradigm that the cream rises to the top. With a novel, if you do the work — study your craft, read voraciously over decades, develop your powers of poetry and observation, practice by getting smaller pieces published (both fiction and nonfiction), enter literary contests, and write daily or near daily — you will eventually write a novel of value. Then you edit and get feedback from your writing group and revise again, and again, and then polish until the stone is smooth.
At that point, it’s just a numbers game. We all know of classics and modern bestsellers that were rejected dozens of times before finding their way into the world. Having worked the slushpile at an independent publishing house, I have a good sense of what’s out there. Much of it is generated by people who haven’t paid their dues. People who don’t seem to read and haven’t bothered to learn the difference between its and it’s and wouldn’t know a comma splice if it hit them in the head.
These things matter, as do an understanding of story structure. As a professional editor, I’m a little biased on this point, but if you want to come across as the real deal and knock the socks off of an agent or publisher, don’t tell yourself that “the editors will fix it.” Buy a copy of The Chicago Manual of Style and do your homework.
Believing in this paradigm of the work paving its own way becomes a religion of writing, making it easier to keep self-doubt and fear of failure at bay. The structure applies to any creative discipline. As Steven Pressfield writes, “If you’re seeking reinforcement from outside yourself, you’re in for a long, lonely haul. The answer to self-doubt is self-reinforcement. Lindbergh made it to Paris, and you and I can too.”
When all else fails, I remind myself that the Pulitzer winner John Hersey was my third cousin twice removed (or something like that). It’s my responsibility not to disgrace the Hersey name, right? And maybe, with any luck, some of that DNA has made its way into my writing muscles.
I won’t really know until I finish and polish my novel, which is currently at 100,000 words and far from complete. And if my manuscript ultimately disappoints me, I’ll put it in a drawer and start over. Meanwhile, I continue the daily practice of becoming a better writer — which is to say, living with as much presence as I can muster and surrounding myself with words.
4. What are some of your favorite resources on creativity?
Books. I am a hoarder of books. (I allow myself this weakness because books are the only thing I stockpile. Aside from children.) The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp, The Zen of Creativity by John Daido Loori, The Art of Possibility by Rosamund and Benjamin Zander. Everything by Eric Maisel, Danny Gregory, Keri Smith, Patti Digh, Jennifer Louden, Steven Pressfield, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Julia Cameron, and Natalie Goldberg. I could go on for several more pages here. How many pixels are left on this web page?
5. What is your favorite way to get your creative juices flowing?
The best way to get the creative juices flowing is to do the work. In my experience, there aren’t any shortcuts. There’s no waiting for the muse. Butt in chair; do the work. Want to read a page of Wallace Stevens or Mary Oliver first? Great. Then do the work.
6. What’s your advice for readers on cultivating creativity?
What do you love? What calls to you? Do that. Be that. Study that. Not sure where to start? Learn by doing, do your research first, or a combination of the two. The only limitations are the ones you set for yourself.
7. Anything else you’d like readers to know about creativity?
I used to have this Graham Greene quote stuck on my computer: “Writing is a form of therapy; sometimes I wonder how all those who do not write, compose, or paint can manage to escape the madness, melancholia, the panic and fear which is inherent in a human situation.” Yes. We make meaning by creating. So whatever cards you’re dealt today, give them a shuffle and go make something.
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