Researchers at the Tufts University Tissue Engineering Resource Center have used a jelly doughnut as a model for the most realistic brain structure ever created.
The three-dimensional brain tissue was created to help treat brain diseases, as well as help people experiencing traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), according to Discovery News. However, the project also brings scientists closer to creating an artificial human brain that works properly.
"I don't think there is anything like this out there," said David Kaplan, director of the center and lead author of the project's paper. "People before us have built brain structures in two dimensions, but they don't survive for a long period of time. We can prescribe where we put cells and what will it look like. Those are the kind of things that are quite novel here that will provide a tool for the field."
The team developed the fake tissue to imitate the gray and white matter of a real human brain. The model is a spongy scaffold shaped like a doughnut that is made of silk proteins and a collagen-based gel at the center. The outer layer of the scaffold is filled with rat neurons, and serves as the grey matter. The neurons were able to send branches out across the model's center that allowed them to connect to neurons on the other side, The Washington Post reported.
The model also has six concentric rings, each having different kinds of neurons, that are designed to copy the six layers of the human brain.
"It's a form-fitting, Lego-like system, so we don't have to worry about using glues, and how they might complicate the interfaces between these different compartments," Kaplan said.
Brain injuries were also tested on the structure by dropping a small weight on it to simulate the kind of injury a human brain would suffer from a concussion or other traumatic impact, Discovery News reported. The team then watched the tissue and the intersections between the neurons gradually recover.
Because the tissue is designed like a Lego block, it gives researchers the ability to manipulate it into different kinds of brain structures, The Washington Post reported.
While the team plans on using the model to study brain-related illnesses, they still have questions about the tissue's capabilities and how they relate to the abilities of the human brain.
"There are questions we have that are more difficult to define, like how we store memories or how the brain feels pain," Kaplan said. "It's a long list of questions to answer, which is why we're so excited."
The team's research was published Monday in the Proceeds of the National Academy of Sciences.
