According to New Atlas, researchers at the University of California, Riverside have developed the first completely synthetic brain tissue model called BIPORES. The breakthrough system uses polyethylene glycol (PEG) combined with a custom microfluidic setup and bioprinter to create 3D structures with layered, interconnected pores. Lead author Prince David Okoro emphasized the scaffold’s stability enables longer-term studies of mature brain cells that better reflect real tissue function. The material successfully supported neural stem cell attachment, growth, and active nerve connection formation. This innovation could significantly reduce or eliminate animal brain use in research, aligning with FDA initiatives to phase out animal testing. The team is now scaling up from the current 2-millimeter scaffold size and exploring applications for liver tissue.
The synthetic advantage
Here’s what makes this different from previous attempts. Most neural tissue engineering has relied on biological coatings or animal-derived materials to make cells stick and grow properly. PEG alone is basically Teflon for cells – they just slide right off. The BIPORES system cracks this by creating these intricate pore patterns inspired by something called bijels, which are soft materials with smooth, saddle-shaped internal surfaces. It’s the combination of large-scale fibrous shapes with these micro-scale pores that lets nutrients flow through while giving cells the structure they need to actually form connections.
But can they scale it?
Now, the big question: will this actually replace animal testing anytime soon? The current scaffold is just two millimeters across. That’s tiny. The researchers mention they’re working on scaling up, but going from lab-scale to something that can realistically replace animal models in drug testing is a massive leap. We’ve seen plenty of “breakthrough” tissue engineering approaches that work beautifully in petri dishes but fail when you try to make them larger or more complex. The nutrient flow and structural integrity challenges multiply quickly as you scale up.
The stability question
The team emphasizes that their synthetic scaffold permits longer-term studies, which is definitely important for meaningful neuroscience research. But “longer-term” is relative. How long are we talking? Weeks? Months? Years? Real brain tissue needs to maintain function over decades. And what about the complexity of different brain regions? This is a generic neural tissue model – it doesn’t replicate the specific architectures of hippocampus, cortex, or other specialized areas. Still, it’s a significant step forward from previous synthetic attempts that couldn’t even get basic neural connections to form properly.
Where this could actually matter
Look, the most immediate impact might not be in replacing entire animal brains for research. It’s in creating better, more reliable platforms for specific types of studies. Think drug screening for neurological conditions, studying basic neural development, or testing how toxins affect neural tissue. The fact that it’s fully synthetic means fewer variables and more consistent results across experiments. And if they can successfully apply the same approach to liver tissue as mentioned, that’s huge for toxicology testing. Basically, we’re looking at potentially creating a whole ecosystem of synthetic organ models that could work together. That’s the real vision here – not just better brain models, but interconnected systems that mimic how different organs actually interact in the body.
