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An exact replica of brain tissue has been printed on a 3-D printer
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
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The human brain contains more than 80 billion nerve cells, and researchers were faced with the difficult task of creating artificial tissue to study how the brain works, but all attempts ended in failure.
In one research center in Australia, specialists have managed to come close to solving this problem. The ACES center printed a 3-D model that not only imitates the structure of brain tissue and consists of nerve cells, but also forms relatively correct neural connections.
The price of brain tissue for testing is quite high. When developing new drugs, pharmaceutical manufacturers spend a huge amount of money (millions of dollars) on animal testing. It is worth noting that even after successful animal testing, when testing on humans, it turns out that the drugs have the opposite effectiveness. According to scientists, this is due to the fact that the human brain is different from that of animals.
The 3-D printed brain tissue model closely mimics human brain tissue and is expected to be useful not only for testing new drugs but also in the study of various atrophic diseases and brain disorders.
The author of the research project, Professor Gordon Wallace, explained that the development of his research group can be considered a big step forward, since the test brain tissue will not only allow a better understanding of the principle of the brain and the development of certain diseases, but will also open up great opportunities for pharmaceutical companies.
It's too early to talk about printing a full-fledged pop brain, Wallace says, but knowing how to organize cells so they form the right neural connections is a breakthrough in itself.
To create the six-layer structure, scientists created a special biological paint based on natural carbohydrate materials. The unique paint has the ability to reproduce precise cellular dispersion throughout the entire structure of the material, thereby providing a rare level of cellular protection.
Biological paint is specially designed for 3-D printing and can be used under normal conditions for growing cells, without the need for expensive equipment.
The result of such printing is a layered structure, exactly the same as that observed in natural brain tissue, the cells are arranged in a certain order and remain in the layers assigned to them.
This development, according to Wallace, opens up the possibility of using other, more complex printers to create test models.
The experts also noted that the new printing principle cannot yet be used in neurosurgery, since the artificial brain tissue is short-lived; in addition, despite the precise imitation, the 3-D model is not a 100% analogue of the real brain.
Previously, all artificial models created were created in two dimensions, but the new 3-D model brings research closer to real conditions.
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