full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Sergiu P. Pasca: How we're reverse engineering the human brain in the lab

Unscramble the Blue Letters

That's right. We can build human brain circuits in a dish. How is that possible? binudlig on the hard work of biologists over the past 15 years or so, we can toady take any cell type from any individual and then push it back in time to turn them into stem cells and then guide those stem cells to become any other cell type. We start by asking a patient to provide a samll skin smlape. We then take those skin cells, reaorgrpm them by putting a seeris of gteeinc factors and push them back in time so that those skin cells become stem cells. It's like cellular alchemy. These stem cells have almost magical aibltieis to turn into any other cell type.

Open Cloze

That's right. We can build human brain circuits in a dish. How is that possible? ________ on the hard work of biologists over the past 15 years or so, we can _____ take any cell type from any individual and then push it back in time to turn them into stem cells and then guide those stem cells to become any other cell type. We start by asking a patient to provide a _____ skin ______. We then take those skin cells, _________ them by putting a ______ of _______ factors and push them back in time so that those skin cells become stem cells. It's like cellular alchemy. These stem cells have almost magical _________ to turn into any other cell type.

Solution

  1. small
  2. series
  3. sample
  4. building
  5. reprogram
  6. today
  7. abilities
  8. genetic

Original Text

That's right. We can build human brain circuits in a dish. How is that possible? Building on the hard work of biologists over the past 15 years or so, we can today take any cell type from any individual and then push it back in time to turn them into stem cells and then guide those stem cells to become any other cell type. We start by asking a patient to provide a small skin sample. We then take those skin cells, reprogram them by putting a series of genetic factors and push them back in time so that those skin cells become stem cells. It's like cellular alchemy. These stem cells have almost magical abilities to turn into any other cell type.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
human brain 17
cell type 6
stem cells 5
brain organoids 4
brain cells 4
skin cells 3
outer layer 2
human circuits 2
brain disorders 2
specific brain 2
build human 2
brain circuits 2
chemical soup 2
brain organoid 2
nervous system 2
brain clock 2
side started 2
jumping behavior 2
molecular mechanism 2

Important Words

  1. abilities
  2. alchemy
  3. biologists
  4. brain
  5. build
  6. building
  7. cell
  8. cells
  9. cellular
  10. circuits
  11. dish
  12. factors
  13. genetic
  14. guide
  15. hard
  16. human
  17. individual
  18. magical
  19. patient
  20. provide
  21. push
  22. putting
  23. reprogram
  24. sample
  25. series
  26. skin
  27. small
  28. start
  29. stem
  30. time
  31. today
  32. turn
  33. type
  34. work
  35. years