3D Neural Microtissues

The development of 3D brain cultures has had a transformative impact on the field of predictive biology, and is the foundation for much of the research at the Hoffman-Kim Lab. Using rodent neural cells or human stem cells, researchers can create ‘mini-brains’ in a high-throughput manner. These mini-brains more accurately represent features of in vivo neuronal tissue, while allowing us to maintain control over the system’s environment. 

These features – reproducibility, control, and comparatively high fidelity – make 3D culture systems a very attractive target for drug development, toxicity screening, and in vitro disease and injury modeling. Additionally, one of the things that makes the brain so interesting is that the activity within the neurons is just as important as the morphology. Our work aims to use neuronal microtissues to model network behavior, and to see how those networks are changed in pathological states. 

Under normal conditions, neurons form networks in a predictable manner. They first create connections, and display highly synchronized activity, which then become more complex as the network develops. We are starting to look at what happens to these networks when we subject the mini-brains to pathological conditions, such as traumatic injury or ischemic stroke, or when we change the composition of those networks by changing the concentrations of certain cell types. The goal of these studies is to offer new avenues of investigation into complex neurological phenomena.