Brain Model with Key Tissue Types Enables Personalized Disease and Drug Research

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a new 3D brain tissue model that integrates all six major brain cell types into a single system, offering a human-based, customizable platform for studying brain function and neurodegenerative disease. Grown from patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), the models, dubbed multicellular integrated brains, or “miBrains,” replicate key physiological features of the brain, including cell-to-cell signaling, immune response, vasculature, and barrier function. Details of the research are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences .

“The miBrain is the only in vitro system that contains all six major cell types that are present in the human brain,” said senior author Li-Huei T