ACES researchers create 3D neural cells

The team at St Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne, along with researchers at the University of Wollongong, have successfully developed 3D neural cell constructs that mimic brain function. These findings are an important development towards the ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science ‘Brain on a Bench’ project.

A major constraint when using conventional 2D culture substrates in neuroscience is the limited networking capacity of the cells, which significantly differs from native brain activity. These three-dimensional constructs are a key development in creating neuronal networks that mimic native electrical brain activity.

As part of this study neural cells were encapsulated within a 3D gel – composed of collagen and extracellular matrix protein – where they were cultured over 35 days before being interrogated by a multielectrode array system (MEA). The network function showed synchronised, extended bursts of activity at each electrode, indicating fully connected neural networks; function that is akin to neuronal networks within the brain.

These 3D neural constructs developed by the team of ACES scientists will allow clinicians, such as Director of Neurosciences at St Vincent’s Hospital, Professor Mark Cook, to more easily manage diseases such as epilepsy and schizophrenia. Patients with epilepsy experience overactivity in their brain function, and treatment often requires trialling a number of anti-epileptic drugs until seizures are adequately controlled with minimal side effects. Taking a patient’s own cells, programmed to become neural tissue, placed into these 3D cultures with natural networking function, will provide clinicians with a powerful tool to try different drugs at different doses to determine which is best for each patient’s own tissue.

The team at St Vincent’s and UOW have been working, and will continue to work, alongside a multidisciplinary team of scientists spanning across the ACES facilities. This includes materials scientists at the University of Tasmania – to determine the best medium for the cell encapsulation – as well as the Ethics, Policy and Public Engagement theme which is extremely important when working with stem cells, neural cultures and in a clinical setting.

The full paper on ‘Three‐dimensional neural cultures produce networks that mimic native brain activity’ that was published in the Journal of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine. You are able to read it online here.