• Question: can you have a brain transplant without dying?

    Asked by francescanoto to Amy, Karen, Sarah, Vijay, Will on 12 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Will Reynolds

      Will Reynolds answered on 12 Jun 2012:

      Hi Francescanoto. Brain transplants are not possible yet, but who knows maybe in the future we will be able to grow new bodies and move ours brains so we live longer!

    • Photo: Karen Reed

      Karen Reed answered on 12 Jun 2012:

      Hiya – no you can’t transplant the whole brain. But there is work to transplant in new cells into the brain to replace damaged ones… that will come fairly soon I recon.

    • Photo: Sarah Martin

      Sarah Martin answered on 12 Jun 2012:

      Hi francescanoto! No, a whole brain can’t be transplanted, but there are cases where people have managed to live with only about half their brain intact after a bullet went through the other half!
      I think it would be really useful to be able to order a new brain when the old one gets tired…

    • Photo: Amy Birch

      Amy Birch answered on 12 Jun 2012:

      hi francescanoto, unfortunately not! But as Karen mentioned, it is possible to transplant new cells into the brain to replace any damaged cells.
      In fact there was a study in Glasgow that tested the safety of injecting new cells into the brain of patients who have had a stroke. This was very successful and so now the scientists are conducting further studies to look at how effective this treatment is.
      Although it is not a full brain transplant, that this a really exciting new area of research that will definitely be important in the future because it will hopefully help people heal and regrow the damaged parts of their brains! 🙂

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