SEOUL, September 25 (AJP) - Researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST) have developed a new way to build custom 3D brain chips that could change how scientists study the brain and treat neurological diseases.
Traditional brain chips, used to study nerve cells grown outside the body, are usually built with semiconductor processes. These methods are expensive and flat in design, which makes it hard to create realistic 3D structures. Even with newer 3D printing methods, the process still follows the same order as chipmaking: lay down conductive materials first, then add insulation, then open electrode spots. That meant the design freedom was still limited.
KAIST said in a press release on Thursday that the team, led by Professor Nam Yoon-ki in the Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, decided to do the opposite. They first used a 3D printer to create a hollow skeleton made of insulating material. Inside this skeleton, they designed tiny tunnels. Instead of trying to fill those tunnels with metal lines manually, they allowed electrically conductive ink to flow in naturally through capillary action, like water soaking into a sponge. This simple switch created a scaffold packed with microelectrodes arranged in complex 3D patterns.
The new platform can make chips in many shapes, such as probe-style, cube-like, or modular versions. It also works with different conductive materials, including graphite, conductive polymers, and silver nanoparticles. Because of this flexibility, the chips can capture nerve signals from multiple directions at once, letting researchers study how brain cells connect and interact in much greater detail.
The technology could be used to explore the roots of brain diseases, to design cell-based biosensors, or even to advance bio-computing, which tries to use living cells to process information.
“This study shows how combining 3D printing with capillary action can give researchers much more freedom in making brain chips,” Nam said. “We expect it will help both basic neuroscience and applied fields like drug testing and bio-computing.”
The first author of the study is Dr. Yoon Dong-jo, also from KAIST. The results were published online in Advanced Functional Materials on June 25.
The research was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea through its Mid-Career Researcher Program and Global Research Laboratory Program.
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
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