The first functioning human brain tissue 3D printed. It can be used to study neurological diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, as well as speed up drug testing.
Neurons communicate, send signals, interact with each other through neurotransmitters and form real networks with support cells added to the tissue. The new printing technique also allows the types of cells and their arrangement to be controlled with extreme precision, which is not possible with brain organoids. The result is published in Cell Stem Cell by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.