3D-printed brain tissue

Researchers in Australia have developed a new way of printing 3D structures that closely resemble layered brain tissue

In the latest effort to build an artificial laboratory model of the brain, Australian researchers have developed a novel method for constructing layered biological structures that looks just like cerebral cortex tissue using a handheld 3D printer.

Neuroscientists rarely get the opportunity to study the human brain directly, and so work on cells or tissue slices that have been dissected from animals and grown in Petri dishes. These in vitro methods are useful for studying development and processes such as neurodegeneration and cell-to-cell signalling, but are severely limited in that they do not resemble the complex three-dimensional structure of the brain.