Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health researchers have been growing small replicas of the human brain to aid the research of neurological diseases in a trend many hope may result in better treatments and even cures for a few most debilitating illnesses.

The researchers have joined a handful of other medical scientists countrywide, who have been culturing so-called ‘mini-brains’ in the laboratory. The field is a relatively new one of scientific inquiry that may revolutionize the way latest drugs are tested for effectiveness by the replacement of drug testing on lab animals with human cells.

The process may offer more exact test results and prove helpful in the development of latest, more effective drugs.

They have reprogrammed the genes of human skin cells for making them similar to embryonic stem cells, which can develop into any type of tissue. Thereafter, these stem cells were nurtured to become brain cells.

They presented their findings at the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference in Washington, DC, on Friday.

At full growth, the three-dimensional mini-brains measure nearly 350 micrometers, only detectable by the human eye, and appear like small balls. The brain cells take about eight weeks to grow into one of such balls.

Though the versions aren't accurate brain replicas, they have been made of same neurons and cells present in human brains, and have the same structures and work in the same way.

Lead researcher Dr. Thomas Hartung said that the mini-brains have offered a better testing ground for scientists. Hartung is the holder of the Bloomberg School's Doerenkamp-Zbinden endowed chair in evidence-based toxicology.

Human brains are quite more complex in comparison to the brains of rats now more generally used in research. Hartung mentioned that nearly 95% of the drugs that seem promising on testing in animal models fail when are tested on humans.