Scientists at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US, have grown human brain tissues called 'organoids' with help of a 3D Printed Bioreactor that they developed.

The objective was to observe the brain tissues while they grow and develop, a technology that can potentially accelerate medical and therapeutic discoveries for diseases such as cancer and neurological disorders like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

However, the scientists team have come up with a novel solution, which lets the cells grow uninterruptedly.

A 3D printed micro-incubator and imaging chamber was made into a single palm-sized platform, which was successfully demonstrated for long-term human brain cells culture and real-time imaging.

"The design from this research is a scalable microfluidic technology in which copies of an organoid can be grown simultaneously in different wells, for studies in basic and applied science," Professor Anil Prabhakar, Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Madras, said in a statement on Monday, 17 May.

The technology has been patented in India.

The findings of this research were recently published in the peer-reviewed international journal Biomicrofluidics.

Cell culture is one of the fundamental steps in validation of the human organ model, whether it may be a pre-clinical study for Covid-19, cancer medicine discovery or any medicine to be used on humans.

(This story was published from a syndicated feed. Only the headline and picture has been edited by FIT)