The MESO-BRAIN project, awarded with € 3.3 million in funding from the European Commission as part of its Future and Emerging Technology scheme, aims at 3D printing human neural networks mimicking the brain's structure and function. These 3D networks are to feature specific biological architecture and the ability to interrogate the network's brain-like activity both electrohpysilogically and optically. The research team will us human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), that have been differentiated into neurones. The scaffolds for these cells are produced using a 3D laser printer capable of creating objects on a nanoscale. Nano-electrodes will be incorporated into the structure for downstream analysis of the network's function.

Aston University has launched MESO-BRAIN, a major stem cell research project which it hopes will develop three-dimensional (3D) nanoprinting techniques that can be used to replicate the brain's neural networks. The cornerstone of the MESO-BRAIN project will be its use of pluripotent stem cells generated from adult human cells that have been turned into brain cells, which will form neural networks with specific biological architectures. Advance imaging and detection technologies developed in the project will be used to report on the activity of these networks in real time. Such technology would mark a new era of medical and neuroscience research which would see screening and testing conducted using physiologically relevant 3D living human neural networks. In the future, this could potentially be used to generate networks capable of replacing damaged areas in the brains of those suffering from Parkinson's disease, dementia or other brain trauma.