Precisely engineered 3D Brain Tissue

Tweet Borrowing from microfabrication techniques used in the semiconductor industry, MIT and Harvard Medical School (HMS) engineers have developed a simple and inexpensive way to create three-dimensional brain tissues in a lab dish.The new technique yields tissue constructs that closely mimic the cellular composition of those in the living brain, allowing scientists to study how neurons form connections and to predict how cells from individual patients might respond to different drugs. The work also paves the way for developing bioengineered implants to replace damaged tissue for organ systems, according to the researchers.

Advanced Materials journal - Simple Precision Creation of Digitally Specified, Spatially Heterogeneous, Engineered Tissue Architectures

ABSTRACT - Complex architectures of integrated circuits are achieved through multiple layer photolithography, which has empowered the semiconductor industry. We adapt this philosophy for tissue engineering with a versatile, scalable, and generalizable microfabrication approach to create engineered tissue architectures composed of digitally specifiable building blocks, each with tuned structural, cellular, and compositional features.

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