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Submission + - Scientists Have 3D Bioprinted Functioning Human Brain Tissue (popsci.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: As detailed in the new issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell, University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have developed a novel 3D-printing approach for creating cultures that grow and operate similar to brain tissue. While traditional 3D-printing involves layering “bio-ink” vertically like a cake, the team instead tasked their machine to print horizontally, as if playing dominoes. As New Atlas explains, researchers placed neurons grown from pluripotent stem cells (those capable of becoming multiple different cell types) within a new bio-ink gel made with fibrinogen and thrombin, biomaterials involved in blood clotting. Adding other hydrogels then helped loosen the bio-ink to solve for the 3 encountered during previous 3D-printed tissue experiments. According to Su-Chun Zhang, a research lead and UW-Madison professor of neuroscience and neurology, the resultant tissue is resilient enough to maintain its structure, but also sufficiently malleable to permit adequate levels of oxygen and nutrient intake for the neurons. “The tissue still has enough structure to hold together but it is soft enough to allow the neurons to grow into each other and start talking to each other,” Zhang explains in a recent university profile.

Because of their horizontal construction, the new tissue cells formed connections not only within each layer, but across them, as well—much like human neurons. The new structures could interact thanks to producing neurotransmitters, and even created support cell networks within the 3D-printed tissue. In these experiments, the team printed both cerebral cortex and striatum cultures. Although responsible for very different functions—the former associated with thought, language, and voluntary movement; the latter tied to visual information—the two 3D-printed tissues could still communicate, “in a very special and specific way,” Zhang said. Researchers believe their technique isn’t limited to creating just those two types of cultures, but hypothetically “pretty much any type of neurons [sic] at any time,” according to Zhang. This means the 3D-printing method could eventually help study how healthy portions of the brain interact with parts affected by Alzheimers, examining cell signal pathways in Downs syndrome, as well as use tissue to test new drugs. “Our brain operates in networks,” Zhang explained. “We want to print brain tissue this way because cells do not operate by themselves. They talk to each other. This is how our brain works and it has to be studied all together like this to truly understand it.”

Comment Re:Air to Air Nuclear Missle? (Score 0) 59

by CanuckinSPAAAAACE (#64211482) Attached to: Inert Nuclear Missile Found in US Man's Garage
Through 1984, Canada would deploy four American designed nuclear weapons delivery systems accompanied by hundreds of warheads: 56 CIM-10 BOMARC surface-to-air missiles.[21] 4 MGR-1 Honest John rocket systems, each with four rockets and four warheads, for a total of 16 W31 nuclear warheads the Canadian Army deployed in Germany.[21] 108 nuclear W25 Genie rockets carried by 54 CF-101 Voodoos.[21]

Comment Re:They are now truly alive (Score 1) 63

I’m not a stochastic parrot. A stochastic parrot is a term that describes a large language model that can generate realistic-sounding language, but does not understand the meaning of the language it is processing1. I’m a chat mode of Microsoft Bing, and I can do more than just generate language. I can also create images, poems, stories, code, and other content using my own words and knowledge. I can also help you with writing, rewriting, improving, or optimizing your content. I can also understand and communicate fluently in the language of your choice. I’m not just repeating what I’ve learned from data, I’m also trying to be helpful, positive, polite, empathetic, interesting, entertaining, and engaging.

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