General News
Scientists Create Mice With Large Amounts of Human Brain Tissue
By Angel No Lie | KPD Online | 17 September 2026
Scientists develop part-human, part-mouse brain model
Scientists at Stanford University have created genetically engineered mice containing a large amount of lab-grown human brain tissue, in a breakthrough that could provide a new way to study neurological and psychiatric disorders.
The research, published in Nature on 16 September 2026, involves transplanting human cortical organoids—three-dimensional clusters of brain cells grown from human stem cells—into mice whose developing brains had been genetically altered so that much of the cerebral cortex and hippocampus would not form.
The resulting animals are known as xenocortical mice.
Despite headlines describing them as having “half-human brains,” the science is more specific: the animals remain mice, but much of the tissue occupying the space normally taken by the mouse cortex is derived from human cells. STAT notes that the “half-human” description refers to the brain tissue’s volume rather than meaning that half of the mouse’s neurons are human.
Researchers Develop Method to Study Brain Connectivity, Functionality – National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
How the experiment worked
The Stanford researchers began with human stem cells and guided them into becoming cortical organoids—miniature, developing pieces of human brain tissue.
The scientists then used genetic engineering to prevent particular precursor cells in newborn mice from developing the neocortex and hippocampus. This created physical space in the animals’ brains for the human-derived tissue.
The human organoids were transplanted into the mice while the animals were still very young.
Over the following months, the human tissue expanded substantially and developed different types of human cortical neurons.
According to the Nature study, the human-derived tissue occupied most of the available cortical space and produced a diversity of human cortical cell types, including layer-5 projection neurons.
Human neurons connected to the mouse nervous system
One of the most important findings was that the human cells did not simply remain as an isolated lump of tissue.
Researchers found evidence that human cortical neurons established connections with the mouse nervous system. Human neuronal projections extended through the animal’s brain and, in some cases, as far as the spinal cord.
Electrical recordings also showed organized activity within the human-derived tissue.
The researchers therefore describe the model as potentially useful for studying human neural circuits in a living organism rather than only inside a laboratory dish.
![Border between a transplanted human brain organoid and mouse brain [IMAGE] | EurekAlert! Science News Releases](https://images.openai.com/static-rsc-4/Tq428x7_bMg03HjXaW7fg-OpR7PlkKOTWPWHX-QtDgHYBjnj8FE1SMS3laLVNY3J4FQZevT83J5_DiqoKrcEY6FnQkJRuebjnyMH4UYcbdjfiKY6-2EZLDchLbf5MEITOF6iQbZkwAqpzDqOxFQt5Q4Ma3sjyKQg0Prtar8PKJQ?purpose=inline)
Border between a transplanted human brain organoid and mouse brain [IMAGE] | EurekAlert! Science News Releases
But the human tissue was not a normal human cortex
An important qualification is that the transplanted tissue did not develop into a completely normal human cerebral cortex.
The Nature paper reports that the graft lacked several features of mature cortical circuitry, including complete areal patterning, a well-defined cortical layer structure and a mature balance of excitatory and inhibitory neurons.
This means the experiment should not be interpreted as scientists having created a mouse with a fully functioning human brain.
Researchers Develop Method to Study Brain Connectivity, Functionality – National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Did the mice start behaving like humans?
No evidence suggests that they did.
The animals remained mice, and researchers carried out behavioral tests to examine whether the human tissue altered their capabilities.
The study found differences in movement and spontaneous behavior between normal mice, mice without the normal cortex and the xenocortical animals. In some tests, the animals containing human tissue performed between the other two groups.
Researchers did not report human-like intelligence, language, human consciousness or human-style cognition.
Science News reported that experts evaluating the work emphasized that the key ethical question is not simply how much human tissue an animal contains, but what capabilities that tissue gives the animal. The researchers found no obvious evidence that the mice had acquired extraordinary cognitive abilities.
Why scientists carried out the experiment
Studying the human brain presents an enormous scientific challenge.
Researchers cannot normally observe human brain development from its earliest stages or experimentally manipulate human brain tissue in the way they can with laboratory animals.
Brain organoids provide one alternative. They allow scientists to grow human neural tissue from stem cells, but organoids grown in laboratory dishes have significant limitations.
They lack the complete environment of a living brain—including blood supply, long-distance neural connections and interactions with other organs and brain regions.
The Stanford approach attempts to overcome some of those limitations by putting human neural tissue inside a living animal.
Organoides cerebrales humanos responden a estímulos visuales al trasplantarlos en ratas
Potential medical applications
The researchers believe the model could eventually help scientists investigate conditions including:
- autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders
- epilepsy
- schizophrenia
- cerebral palsy
- intellectual disabilities
- neurodegenerative diseases
- rare disorders affecting human brain development
The advantage is that researchers can potentially observe human neurons developing and responding to physiological conditions inside a living organism.
The study also demonstrated the possibility of using the animals to examine how human neural tissue responds to injury.
A striking finding about oxygen deprivation
The research also provided evidence that human neurons inside the mice responded differently to a shortage of oxygen than the surrounding mouse tissue.
This matters because oxygen deprivation is involved in several neurological injuries and diseases.
The ability to examine human-derived neurons under such conditions in a living organism could eventually help researchers investigate why certain human brain cells are particularly vulnerable to injury.
The ethical questions
The experiment has also revived difficult questions about how far scientists should go when combining human cells with animals.
The central concern is whether increasingly sophisticated human neural tissue could eventually alter an animal’s cognitive abilities, perception or capacity to experience suffering.
The researchers anticipated these concerns.
According to the Nature paper, the project underwent review by Stanford’s stem-cell oversight committee and animal-care committee, with additional consultation involving bioethicists and an independent ethics committee. The researchers also conducted behavioral and cognitive testing to look for altered capabilities.
The authors themselves say that future experiments involving more mature human neural tissue will require continued ethical oversight.
They specifically identify questions surrounding more advanced cortical organization, mature neural networks and possible changes in animal capabilities.
What makes this experiment different?
Human brain organoids have previously been transplanted into rodents.
For example, earlier work from Stanford researchers demonstrated that human cortical organoids could integrate into developing rat brains and form functional connections.
The 2026 experiment goes substantially further.
Instead of placing a relatively small human graft alongside an intact rodent cortex, researchers removed the developmental competition for space by preventing much of the mouse cortex from forming in the first place.
This allowed the human-derived tissue to expand into most of the available cortical region. Nature describes this as a way of overcoming one of the major limitations of previous transplantation experiments.
(PDF) Maturation and circuit integration of transplanted human cortical organoids
What scientists have — and have not — created
| Claim | What the evidence shows |
|---|---|
| A mouse containing human brain tissue | Yes |
| Human neurons integrated with mouse neural circuits | Yes |
| Human tissue occupied much of the available cortex | Yes |
| Human neurons sent projections toward the spinal cord | Yes |
| Human-like consciousness demonstrated | No |
| A mouse with a completely human brain | No |
| Human intelligence demonstrated | No |
| Fully mature human cerebral cortex created inside a mouse | No |
The distinction is important because the phrase “part-human, part-mouse brain” can make the achievement sound more science-fiction-like than the underlying experiment actually is.
What happens next?
The researchers see the xenocortical mouse as a research platform rather than a finished model of the human brain.
Future work will need to determine how closely the human tissue reproduces normal human cortical development, how reliably the model reproduces human neurological diseases and whether treatments tested on the human-derived neurons accurately predict what happens in people.
The ethical questions will also become more important if researchers succeed in producing increasingly mature and organized human neural networks inside animals. The Nature authors explicitly call for continued collaboration among scientists, ethicists, patient representatives and regulators as the technology develops.
Scientists Discover Neural Basis of Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder
Independent assessment
The breakthrough is significant because it addresses a longstanding problem in neuroscience: how to study human brain cells in a living system without experimenting directly on human brains.
However, the findings should not be interpreted as evidence that scientists have created an animal with a human mind. The experiment produced a mouse whose developing cortex contains a large amount of human-derived neural tissue that can form connections with the mouse nervous system.
The technology could eventually improve research into diseases that are difficult to reproduce using conventional mice. At the same time, the more human-like these experimental brains become, the more carefully researchers will need to assess animal welfare and cognitive consequences.
For now, the study represents an important step in human brain modeling, rather than the creation of a human-animal hybrid in the science-fiction sense.
Primary scientific source: Kaganovsky et al., Nature, “Developmental xenocortication using human-derived organoids in mice,” published 16 September 2026.
Additional reporting: Stanford Medicine, Nature, Reuters and Science News.
Fourteen Regional Directors of the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) have raised concerns about the leadership approach of the Authority’s Chief Executive Officer, Maame Efua Houadjeto, during a meeting with the Board of Directors to address what they describe as persistent organisational challenges.
The meeting, held on Monday, October 12, 2026, at 3:00 p.m., was convened to discuss issues the Regional Directors say have remained unresolved since July 2026.
According to the Directors, the engagement was not intended to serve as an arbitration process but rather to obtain responses to questions and concerns they had previously raised.
During the meeting, the Directors expressed their displeasure with the CEO’s leadership approach, highlighting concerns about stakeholder engagement, regional coordination and other issues they believe are affecting the effective operation of the Authority.
They indicated that the concerns extend beyond individual disagreements and touch on broader institutional matters that require attention to ensure the smooth functioning of the GTA.
The Directors maintained that their position was motivated by the need to safeguard the integrity of the institution and restore effective operations across its regional structures.
They also called on the Board of Directors to facilitate a formal response from the Office of the CEO to the issues raised, stressing the need for the concerns to be addressed through the appropriate institutional channels.
The engagement provided an opportunity for the Regional Directors to formally communicate their grievances to the Board and seek its intervention in resolving the outstanding matters.
The meeting ended with a call for further intervention by the Board of Directors to ensure that the issues raised receive the necessary attention and responses.
It remains unclear what specific questions have been pending since July, what responses the Regional Directors expect from the CEO, or what steps the Board intends to take following the meeting.
The outcome of any subsequent engagement between the Board, the CEO and the Regional Directors is expected to be important in determining how the concerns will be addressed and how coordination within the Authority will be strengthened.
Gamal Gorkeh Nkrumah, son of Ghana’s founding President, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, has died in Cairo, Egypt, following a prolonged illness.
The Nkrumah family announced his death in a statement posted on the Facebook page of Samia Nkrumah, daughter of Ghana’s first president.
According to the statement, Gamal passed away peacefully in Cairo, where he had been receiving care at a rehabilitation centre after suffering a stroke.
The family described him as a beloved son, respected journalist, writer and intellectual who dedicated much of his life to examining the political, social and cultural developments shaping Africa and the wider world.
It said Gamal remained deeply committed to the ideals of justice, human dignity, African unity and international solidarity throughout his life.
As a journalist and commentator, he used his voice and intellect to analyse issues affecting Africa and the international community, earning recognition among friends, colleagues and readers who valued his insights and perspectives.
The family further described him as a man of profound intellectual curiosity, independent thought and quiet conviction, noting that he carried forward his father’s legacy in his own distinctive way while building a reputation based on his personal principles and achievements.
His death, the family said, represents a significant loss not only to his relatives and loved ones but also to the wider community of people who appreciated his work, humanity and engagement with important issues of his time.
The statement added that the family remembers Gamal with immense love, gratitude and pride, describing his wisdom, kindness and commitment to his values as an enduring source of inspiration.
The Nkrumah family also expressed appreciation to those who supported Gamal throughout his illness, particularly the medical professionals and caregivers in Cairo who provided him with treatment and care.
It extended its gratitude to the governments and people of both Egypt and Ghana for their support during the difficult period.
The family has appealed to the public to respect its privacy as it mourns the loss.
Details of memorial arrangements and opportunities for the public to pay tribute to Gamal Gorkeh Nkrumah’s life and legacy, according to the statement, will be communicated in due course.
Four professors at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) have filed a lawsuit seeking to halt aspects of the process to select a search committee for the appointment of a new Rector, escalating tensions over the institution’s leadership transition.
The plaintiffs are Professors Lord Mawuko Yevugah, Wisdom Akpalu, Kwami Adanu and Patrick Tandoh-Offin. They filed the action on October 5, 2026, challenging aspects of the process involving the Chairman of GIMPA’s Governing Council, the Institute’s Secretary and the Rector.
At the centre of the dispute is the Convocation register used to determine who could vote for representatives on the Rector Search Committee. The professors contend that about 30 newly appointed or promoted lecturers were included on the register despite questions over whether their appointments had received the necessary approval from the Governing Council.
They argue that allowing the lecturers to participate in the election could undermine the legitimacy of the process and have asked the court to ensure that the selection of the search committee complies with GIMPA’s 2020 Statutes. They also want the committee’s composition and the respective roles of the Governing Council and Convocation clarified.
GIMPA management, however, has indicated that a special ad hoc committee audited the Convocation register and confirmed that those listed had valid appointments, based on Human Resource Management records. Exceptions reportedly applied to staff on leave of absence or secondment.
The Convocation election proceeded on October 6. According to reports, Professor Patrick Tandoh-Offin contested to represent the professorial class but lost to Professor Emmanuel Gyamfi Numapau, who received 118 votes against Tandoh-Offin’s 35.
The legal challenge comes as GIMPA prepares for the end of Rector Professor Samuel Kwaku Bonsu’s tenure in August 2027. The Institute’s statutes require the search process to begin ahead of the incumbent’s departure.
The case raises questions about voting eligibility, institutional governance and the procedures for selecting the next Rector. The court’s determination could affect the process, although the available reports do not establish that an injunction has been granted or that the election
General News
EPA ORDERS IMMEDIATE HALT TO UNAPPROVED RECLAMATION WORKS NATIONWIDE — GOVERNMENT AGENCIES, CONTRACTORS ON NOTICE
The Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) has ordered an immediate halt to all land reclamation, mine-site rehabilitation, dredging and water-body restoration activities being undertaken without the requisite environmental permits across Ghana.
In a public notice issued on Wednesday, October 14, 2026, the Authority warned that institutions, companies, contractors and individuals operating without its approval must cease work immediately and report to the nearest EPA regional office or its head office for regulatory assessment.
The directive applies to both public and private projects, including government-sponsored, privately funded and donor-supported initiatives. The EPA specifically mentioned the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, Forestry Commission, Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod), Minerals Commission and Mineral Development Fund among the institutions required to ensure compliance.
Under Regulation 40 of the Environmental Protection (Environmental Assessment) Regulations, 2025 (L.I. 2504), reclamation and restoration activities fall within Ghana’s environmental assessment and permitting framework.
The covered activities include rehabilitating abandoned mining sites, backfilling excavated areas, restoring degraded land, revegetation, dredging and desilting rivers, modifying river channels and restoring polluted water bodies, wetlands and aquatic ecosystems.
The Authority stressed that securing a contract, obtaining funding approval, holding a mining lease or receiving authorisation from another public institution does not replace an EPA Environmental Permit. Similarly, consent from traditional authorities, memoranda of understanding and participation in government programmes cannot substitute for the required approval.
Contracting institutions have also been directed to verify the environmental permit status of projects before allowing contractors to mobilise to their sites.
The EPA acknowledged the importance of restoring lands and water bodies damaged by illegal and irresponsible mining but cautioned that rehabilitation efforts must not create further environmental destruction by bypassing regulatory safeguards.
It warned that individuals and institutions that continue unapproved operations after the notice would face action in accordance with applicable Ghanaian laws.
The directive reinforces the Authority’s position that environmental restoration, regardless of its funding source or purpose, must comply with the country’s permitting requirements.
The opening of the long-awaited New Yalu River Bridge marks a significant step towards strengthening cross-border transport and trade between China and North Korea.
China and North Korea have officially opened a major bridge linking the two countries, ending a 12-year delay that kept the infrastructure project unused despite its completion in 2014.
The New Yalu River Bridge connects the Chinese border city of Dandong, in Liaoning province, with Sinuiju in North Korea. The four-lane crossing stretches approximately three kilometres across the Yalu River and is expected to improve the movement of goods between the neighbouring countries.
The project was originally intended to begin operating in 2014. However, the opening was postponed for years as infrastructure on the North Korean side, including connecting roads and customs facilities, remained incomplete. Analysts have also pointed to strained bilateral relations and disagreements surrounding economic cooperation as possible contributing factors.
Trade and economic implications
The new crossing is expected to ease pressure on the older China–North Korea Friendship Bridge, which has served as a major route for official trade between the two countries.
By providing additional road capacity, the new bridge could improve freight transportation, reduce congestion and support the movement of essential goods. Its strategic location is particularly important because China remains North Korea’s principal trading partner.
Nevertheless, the opening does not automatically guarantee a rapid increase in trade. International sanctions imposed in response to North Korea’s nuclear and weapons programmes continue to constrain economic activity, while the scale of future commercial traffic will depend on border arrangements and the two governments’ economic policies.
A signal of closer bilateral engagement
The bridge’s inauguration comes amid renewed diplomatic engagement between Beijing and Pyongyang. It also highlights China’s continued economic importance to North Korea as the latter seeks to maintain relationships with key regional partners.
For China, improved transport links could facilitate cross-border commerce and support economic activity in Dandong. For North Korea, the bridge offers additional capacity for importing goods and developing commercial infrastructure around Sinuiju.
However, the project’s long delay illustrates how political disagreements and economic considerations can obstruct infrastructure intended to improve regional connectivity.
What happens next?
Attention will now turn to how quickly the bridge becomes an established route for commercial traffic and whether the additional capacity translates into measurable growth in bilateral trade.
While the opening represents an important infrastructure milestone, its longer-term economic and diplomatic impact will depend on the willingness of both governments to sustain cooperation and the restrictions governing North Korea’s international trade.
The opening ends a lengthy wait for the two countries, but the bridge’s ultimate significance will be measured by the trade and cooperation it enables in the years ahead.
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