World’s First 3D Printed Brain Tissue Is Capable of Growth and Function Like Natural Brain Tissue

What is 3D Printing?

• It is also known as additive manufacturing, is a method of creating a three dimensional object layer-by-layer using a computer created design.
• This is the opposite of subtractive manufacturing processes, where a final design is cut from a larger block of material. 

What Materials Can Be Used in 3D Printing?

• There are a variety of 3D printing materials, including thermoplastics such as acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), metals (including powders), resins and ceramics.

3D Printing Technologies

There are three broad types of 3D printing technology

• Sintering is a technology where the material is heated, but not to the point of melting, to create high resolution items. Metal powder is used for direct metal laser sintering while thermoplastic powders are used for selective laser sintering.
• Melting methods of 3D printing include powder bed fusion, electron beam melting and direct energy deposition,
  • These use lasers, electric arcs or electron beams to print objects by melting the materials together at high temperatures.
• Stereolithography utilises photopolymerization to create parts. 
  • This technology uses the correct light source to interact with the material in a selective manner to cure and solidify a cross section of the object in thin layers.

Organoids

• These are small, simplified, 3D copies of organs created outside of a living body, usually grown by treating combinations of tissues or stem cells with the nutrients and chemical signals (growth factors) that encourage them to differentiate and self-organize.

Stem Cells

• These are a special type of cell found in multicellular organisms, such as plants and animals, which are yet to develop traits/characters that distinguish specific tissues from one another.
• These cells exist in both fully developed humans and their embryos, however, each contains a slightly different type of stem cell with different tasks.

Alzheimer’s Disease

• It is a chronic neurological condition characterized by worsening short term memory loss. Symptoms progress over time as the condition deteriorates.

Parkinson’s Disease

• It is a degenerative neurological disorder that mostly affects a person’s motor functions along with thinking, mood, and, in later stages, memory.