3D Brain Tissue Engineering Hints at Personalized Medicine

3D Brain Tissue Engineering Hints

at Personalized Medicine

Article may be found here.

        Scientists from MIT and Harvard Medical School have developed a cheap and simple method for fabricating 3-dimensional brain tissues by borrowing techniques from the semiconductor manufacturing industry. The tissue constructs that they have manufactured closely mimic the functions of the brain relating to plasticity, thus allowing scientists to model the interactions between individual brain chemistry and drugs, as well look at potential methods for damaged CNS tissue replacement!

        Obviously there are significant limits to current modeling techniques; the brain is so heterogeneous and complexly circuited. To counteract this complexity, researchers embedded a mixture of neurons and support cells from the primary cortex of rats in hydrogel sheets, along with extracellular matrix components. These sheets were then stacked and then wrapped to induced variable light exposure, thus attempting to mimic 3D brain structure. This same method of photolithography is used to embed integrated circuits onto semiconductors.

        Researchers say this process met three crucial requirements: cheapness, precision, and ability to generate complex patterns. And because this process was successful in mimicking the neuron/cupport cell ratios of specific regions of the brain, they could be used to study how neurons form the connections that allow them to communicate with each other.

        I enjoyed this article because it illustrates a desired model that can help scientists to understand the brain's ability to form new connections, which is a theme we have touched on multiple times this year. I hope that as time moves forward, we will be able to further understand the daunting complexity of the brain.