Additive Manufacturing Deceptively Real: 3D-Printed Brain Model

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Researchers at the University of Missouri's School of Engineering have successfully 3D printed an artificial model of a human brain. This advance could revolutionize the way scientists study neurological disorders, train healthcare professionals and develop personalized therapeutic tools.

For years, scientists have been trying to find out how the brain reacts to mechanical forces and electromagnetic waves. Computer models provide helpful simulations, but do not fully capture what happens in a living brain. Now the team from the College of Engineering at the University of Missouri (Mizzou) is working to close this gap—with 3D-printed models of an artificial human brain. What is new about their approach is that these 3D models not only look and feel like real tissue, but also behave like it. This opens up avenues for safer training, more precise research and advances in personalized medicine. The researchers have already printed a miniaturized model at a scale of around 15% of the actual brain size and are working on creating a life-size version within the next year.

A New Approach: Embedded 3D Printing

Most models of soft tissue are produced using methods that result in a homogeneous internal structure—this does not adequately represent the heterogeneous nature of real brain tissue. To overcome this limitation, the University of Missouri team used a technique called "embedded 3D printing". Unlike conventional 3D printing, where each layer is built up in air, here a gel-like bath supports the soft material during printing. This process provides the necessary stability to reproduce the regionally varying stiffness of the brain and print its soft folds and furrows.

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Customized "Ink" Imitates Brain Tissue

One of the key innovations of this work is the development of a customized printing ink: a modified common polymer whose properties the researchers can precisely adjust to mimic the mechanical, thermal and dielectric properties of brain tissue. By adjusting the chemical composition of the ink, the team can print areas that behave like gray or white matter:

• Gray matter is located in the brain and spinal cord. It supports thinking, movement and memory and plays a key role in information processing, action control and emotion regulation.
• White matter conducts, processes and transmits nerve signals along the spinal cord and interprets sensory information from the body.

Human tissue is incredibly heterogeneous, composed of different materials with varying properties. Our 3D printing approach allows us to replicate this complexity in a way that was previously impossible.

Christopher O’Bryan, Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Applications in Practice

The potential impact of this technology is wide-ranging. Doctors and medical students could one day train on 3D-printed brain models that realistically reproduce the look and feel of the original—allowing them to practice safely and repeatedly before working on patients. Tailor-made brain models could be printed based on the results of individual MRI or CT scans in order to plan and personalize treatments. These models could also be used to investigate how diseases such as Alzheimer's, cerebral aneurysms or traumatic brain injuries develop. Engineers could also use these models to observe how medical implants or everyday electronics interact with brain tissue—and thus make research more accurate and reliable. "It's about providing the medical and scientific community with a tool that is both realistic and personalized," says Mujtaba Rafique Ghoto, PhD student and lead researcher of the study. "The possibilities for improving health and safety are enormous." The study "3D-printing soft tissue phantom models from photo-crosslinkable poly(vinyl alcohol) methacrylate" was published in the journal Materialia. Co-authors are Brett Ulery, B. Hayden Daubert and August J. Hemmerla (Mizzou); Deborah ParraCervantes and Stephan Young (University of Missouri-Kansas City); and W. David Hairston and Christopher G. Sinks (U.S. Army Research Laboratory).

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