Scientists are to print three-dimensional brain tumours for the first time as part of a multi-million pound research project.

A team at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh will use cutting-edge technology to print a mixture of cells commonly found in brain tumours, combining them to construct a single tumour-like mass.

The printed tumours will include stem cells from a highly aggressive and incurable form of the disease called glioblastoma, the most common type of malignant brain tumour in adults.

Researchers say their creation will mimic the characteristics of glioblastoma much more accurately than brain tumour cells cultivated in a laboratory.

The aim is to secure a more effective, easily-reproducible way to test drug treatments for primary malignant brain tumours, which kill around 5,000 people in the UK every year.

In 2012 there were 445 recorded deaths from a brain tumour in Scotland, and during the following year there were 983 recorded diagnoses of a primary brain tumour.

The project is among a package of research initiatives totalling £4.3m announced on Wednesday by The Brain Tumour Charity.

Others include an international collaboration of scientists investigating new ways to test treatments for the most common form of malignant brain tumour in children (medulloblastoma) and a study of cancerous cells which remain in the brain after surgery to remove a tumour.

Dr Nicholas Leslie, a tumour biologist at Heriot-Watt University's Institute of Biological Chemistry, Biophysics and Bioengineering, is working on the project with 3D printing expert Dr Will Shu of the university's School of Engineering and Physical Science.

Dr Leslie said: "We have developed a novel 3D printing technique to print brain tumour cells for the first time, cells that continue to grow rapidly, more closely mimicking the growth of these aggressive tumours in real life.

"Our goal is that this should provide a new way of testing drugs to treat brain tumours, leading to new treatments and speeding up the process by which new drugs become available to patients."

Sarah Lindsell, chief executive of The Brain Tumour Charity, said: "Progress towards more effective treatments for brain tumours has been too slow for too long.

"We urgently need new ideas to bring hope to the thousands whose lives are affected every day by this devastating disease.

"That's why we are delighted to be funding this pioneering project at Heriot-Watt as part of our major research investment announced today."

The Herriot-Watt project was welcomed by Neil Wilkie, whose wife Debbie was diagnosed with a glioblastoma two years ago at the age of 48.

Debbie had surgery followed by chemotherapy and radiotherapy but the tumour has recurred and there is no further effective treatment.

She is now in a hospice receiving palliative care.

Mr Wilkie, from Hampshire, said: "Debbie and I were married for less than six months before she was diagnosed in 2014. Now time has run out for us. There are no more options for Debbie.

"But for the sake of the thousands of people who will be affected by this disease in years to come, we have to find more effective treatments.

"I hope this research funded by The Brain Tumour Charity will make a real difference, so that one day a glioblastoma diagnosis is not an automatic death sentence."