Washington: Bioengineers have recently created a 3D model that can mimic biochemical and electrophysiological responses like a real brain, which offers new options for understanding brain function, disease and trauma, and treatment in better way.
Tufts University researchers have developed the first complex three-dimensional model made of brain-like cortical tissue that exhibits biochemical and electrophysiological responses and could function in the laboratory for months.
Philip Haydon, Ph.D., said that this model provided a unique opportunity for mapping out real-time neurophysiological events and function studies in the laboratory, monitoring that was prohibitive with humans or animals.
Rather than reconstructing a whole-brain network, the Tufts team created a modular design that replicated fundamental features most relevant to the brain`s tissue-level physiological functions and each module combined two materials with different properties.
David Kaplan, Ph.D., said that work was underway to further develop the model and it could potentially be applied to study brain structure-function, drug screening, impact of electrodes and implants on brain function, disease formation and treatments, and the effects of nutrition and toxicants.
The research is reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
