New Medical Technology: Traditional Japanese Flower Arranging Art Inspires Creation Of Artificial Brains

The traditional flower arranging art also known as "ikebana" inspires the creation of artificial brains. This new medical technology will help scientists study the effects of cancer in the brain. It can also be used to develop an appropriate and personalized treatment for brain cancer patients.

Professor Christian Naus of the Department of Cellular and Physiological Sciences in partnership with the Japanese company, Cyfuse, has developed organoids for the study of the effects of glioblastoma on the brain. Inspired by the traditional flower arranging art also known as "ikebana" particularly the use of the heavy base plate with brass needles sticking up. This "ikebana" base plate is used to affix the stems of flowers and other ornaments for the flower arrangement.

Using the same concept, Cyfuse developed a smaller base with microneedles sticking up. The Japanese company specializing in bioprinting helped Professor Naus with the brain organoids.

According to Science Daily, Professor Naus and Cyfuse stick small globs of human neural stem cells on the microneedles. The stem cells multiply and are later differentiated into brain tissues. The brain tissues merged and form a larger structure called organoids. These brain organoids are about 2 to 3 millimeters in diameter.

The brain organoids lack blood vessels but are small enough to allow oxygen and nutrients to permeate the cell tissues. The now formed brain organoids are then infected with glioma cells from the glioblastoma cancer. Glioblastoma is an aggressive cancer where the cancer cells or glioma cells attack the brain and are easily spread. The average survival of glioblastoma patients is one year.

Currently, glioblastoma is treated first with the surgery of the tumor, followed by radiation or chemotherapy. Just like latency of HIV, glioma cells are hard to eradicate from the body and easily infects neighboring brain cells.

After a brief cultivation of the brain organoid infected with glioma cells, Professor Nau discovered that the glioma cells have already infected the surrounding cells. The professor envisions that the technique to grow brain organoids can be personalized with the use of the cancer patient's own brain cells.

The patient's brain cells are combined with the human neural stem cells to grow into brain organoids. The developed brain organoids with the patient's brain cells can now be experimented on by doctors with various combinations of drugs that will eradicate glioma cells on the patient. By using the brain organoids as a 3D replica of the patient's brain, the doctors or medical researchers can find the effective and appropriate treatment for the patient without fear of complications.