Oxford University researchers have successfully built and implanted structured human brain tissue into living mouse brains.

Over several years, the Oxford Martin Programme on 3D Printing for Brain Repair used stem cells, 3D printing, and microfluidics to engineer layered cortical tissue that integrated with host brain tissue, reduced lesion size in injury models, and communicated functionally with surrounding neurons. The result: a new class of research tools that could reshape how scientists study brain development, injury, and disease, without relying on animal models alone.

Brain repair. Image via Oxford.

Recreating the Brain’s Architecture, Layer by Layer

For five years, Oxford researchers worked to engineer a structure that has long eluded laboratory replication: the human cerebral cortex.…