Dr. Anna Herland at KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Dr. Daniel Aili from Linköping University recognized the need to enable researchers to develop more biomemitic models of sophisticated brain-like structures such as the brain-blood-barrier (BBB) and the central nervous system. They also recognized the importance of mimicking the extracellular matrix (ECM) environment to develop accurate 3D models of the BBB. To achieve this, culturing astrocytes in 3D was a critical step.