(No biomed background, just an avid reader of science news) Maybe you already ruled this out based on your specifics, but could lab-grown mini-organs be a suitable third option for your experimental ideas? That in-between choice might offer an end-run around both the mouse-to-human translation problem and the overhead and slowness of experimenting with human subjects within the time frame of a Master’s. Caveats: your estimate of the moral status of mini-brains, the smaller existing knowledge base of how to care for them and interpret results, and possibly cost. I don’t know if there are existing mini-organ models for Alzheimer’s as there are mouse models, sorry.
Interesting idea. Neuron cell cultures exist but are delicate & hard to work with; working with mice is on the organism and not cell level but is closer to it than human cognitive research. Probably not one of the options for an M.A. but can very much be considered for the rest of our careers.
(No biomed background, just an avid reader of science news) Maybe you already ruled this out based on your specifics, but could lab-grown mini-organs be a suitable third option for your experimental ideas? That in-between choice might offer an end-run around both the mouse-to-human translation problem and the overhead and slowness of experimenting with human subjects within the time frame of a Master’s. Caveats: your estimate of the moral status of mini-brains, the smaller existing knowledge base of how to care for them and interpret results, and possibly cost. I don’t know if there are existing mini-organ models for Alzheimer’s as there are mouse models, sorry.
Interesting idea. Neuron cell cultures exist but are delicate & hard to work with; working with mice is on the organism and not cell level but is closer to it than human cognitive research.
Probably not one of the options for an M.A. but can very much be considered for the rest of our careers.
I would suggest reading more on the validity of mice models, particularly for Alzheimer’s, and their failure to translate to the human condition: https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789004391192/BP000025.xml