HARVARD researchers are developing nano-electronics that can be injected into the brain.
The international team, led by Charles Lieber, have developed a way to fabricate nano-scale electronic scaffolds that can be injected via a syringe.
When the scaffolds are connected to electronic devices, they can be used to monitor neural activity in the brain, stimulate tissues and promote regeneration neural regeneration.
Earlier research out of the lab showed that the scaffolds could be used to create cyborg tissue, where cardiac or nerve cells were grown with the scaffolds embedded inside. This let researchers tap into the devices in order to record electrical signals generated by the tissues, and to measure responses to drugs.
The breakthrough in the latest research is the ability to insert the scaffolds into pre-existing tissue, as opposed to growing it from scratch. The researchers noticed that when they released the electronics scaffold completely from the fabrication substrate, it was very flexible.
This meant it could be sucked into a glass needle or pipette. This opened the possibility of delivering the scaffolds via conventional injections.
While electronics are already implanted into the brain for things like deep brain stimulation, the nano-scale scaffolds will allow more precise manipulation of the brain, without the existing issues around inflammation.
The researchers say the scaffolds can be fabricated with conventional manufacturing techniques, making them commercially scalable.
Firstly, the researchers deposit a dissolvable layer on a scaffold. They then create the scaffold by laying out a mesh of nanowires sandwiched in layers of organic polymer.
The initial layer is then dissolved to leave the flexible mesh.