Healthcare (Commonwealth Union) – Scientists have, for the first time, grown functional, brain-like tissue without relying on any animal-based ingredients or supplementary biological coatings. This breakthrough paves the way for more ethical and controlled approaches to testing new neurological treatments.
The aim of neural tissue engineering is to produce models that closely mimic the human brain’s structure and activity, improving the consistency of research into neurological disorders and potential therapies.
Iman Noshadi, a UCR associate professor of bioengineering who led the research indicated that many existing brain tissue systems depend on biological coatings to support cell growth. He further indicated that these coatings are typically derived from animals and are not well-defined, which makes it challenging to reproduce their composition for accurate testing.
Moreover, conducting studies on animal brains — a common practice today — is far from ideal because rodent and human brains have substantial genetic and biological differences. This new platform could lessen, and in some cases remove, the need for animal brain tissue in research. It also supports the U.S. FDA’s move toward reducing animal testing requirements in drug development.
The new substance, detailed in the journal Advanced Functional Materials, serves as a framework for growing donor-derived brain cells and may help scientists replicate traumatic brain injuries, strokes, and neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s.
Its main ingredient is polyethylene glycol (PEG), a widely used polymer valued for its chemical stability. Under normal circumstances, cells do not bind to PEG unless proteins like laminin or fibrin are added.
By reconfiguring PEG into a network of patterned, interlinked pores, the researchers transformed an otherwise inactive material into a structure that cells can identify, settle into, and use to form working neural circuits. Once the cells fully develop, they may display neural behaviour specific to the donor, enabling direct testing of treatments tailored to their neurological issues.
“Since the engineered scaffold is stable, it permits longer-term studies,” explained Prince David Okoro, who is the lead author of the study and a doctoral candidate in Noshadi’s lab. “That’s especially important as mature brain cells are more reflective of real tissue function when investigating relevant diseases or traumas.”
To create the scaffold, the researchers used a technique that pushed water, ethanol and PEG through a series of concentric glass capillaries. As the blend met an external stream of water, its ingredients naturally started to pull apart. A brief burst of light then fixed this separation in place, preserving the sponge-like formation.
These tiny openings enable oxygen and nutrients to move freely through the material, effectively sustaining the implanted stem cells.
“The material ensures cells get what they need to grow, organize, and communicate with each other in brain-like clusters,” added Noshadi. “Because the structure more closely mimics biology, we can start to design tissue models with much finer control over how cells behave.”
The project started in 2020, backed by Noshadi’s startup funding from UC Riverside, while Okoro’s contributions were supported by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine.
At the moment, the scaffold structure measures only around two millimeters in diameter. The researchers are now working on enlarging the model and have also submitted another paper focused on liver tissue.
In the long run, the team aims to build a collection of linked, organ-scale systems that mimic how different parts of the body work together. They intend for these engineered tissues to offer the same stability, durability, and performance seen in their brain-like model.
Noshadi indicated that having a connected network would allow them to observe how multiple tissues react to the same therapy and how an issue in one organ might affect another. He further indicated that it moves them closer to viewing human biology and disease in a more holistic and interconnected way.
