Good news! Amazing stuff! This could be a breakthrough indeed!
"A team of researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has been refining and combining several advanced technologies over the past six years to create a revolutionary platform to treat a vast array of neurological diseases and mental illnesses. ...
It's called Circulatronics, and the idea is to use a fusion of electronics and biological transport to autonomously implant bioelectronics within the body – completely avoiding the need for surgery to enable modern forms of treatment.
The tech is centered around using targeted electrical stimulation aimed at the brain for various conditions. In recent years, this approach has been applied to treating depression, Alzheimer’s disease, Multiple sclerosis, and brain tumors. ...
it involves sub-cellular sized wireless electronic devices (SWED) that can be delivered to your brain via a jab in the arm. Once these tiny chips have been injected, they can autonomously implant themselves on target regions in the brain, and power themselves as they deliver electrical stimulation to the affected areas. ..."
"... Moreover, because the electronic devices are integrated with living, biological cells before being injected, they are not attacked by the body’s immune system and can cross the blood-brain barrier while leaving it intact. This maintains the barrier’s crucial protection of the brain. ..."
From the abstract:
"Bioelectronic implants for brain stimulation are used to treat brain disorders but require invasive surgery. To provide a noninvasive alternative, we report nonsurgical implants consisting of immune cell–electronics hybrids, an approach we call Circulatronics.
The devices can be delivered intravenously and traffic autonomously to regions of inflammation in the brain, where they implant and enable neuromodulation, circumventing the need for surgery.
To achieve suitable electronics, we designed and built subcellular-sized, wireless, photovoltaic electronic devices that harvest optical energy with high power conversion efficiency.
In mice, we demonstrate nonsurgical implantation in an inflamed brain region, as an example of therapeutic target for several neural diseases, by employing monocytes as cells, covalently attaching them to the subcellular-sized, wireless, photovoltaic electronic devices and administering the resulting hybrids intravenously.
We also demonstrate neural stimulation with 30-µm precision around the inflamed region. Thus, by fusing electronic functionality with the biological transport and targeting capabilities of living cells, this technology can form the foundation for autonomously implanting bioelectronics."
New therapeutic brain implants could defy the need for surgery (original news release) "MIT researchers created microscopic wireless electronic devices that travel through blood and implant in target brain regions, where they provide electrical stimulation."
A nonsurgical brain implant enabled through a cell–electronics hybrid for focal neuromodulation (open access)
Fig. 2: Characterization of subcellular-sized electronics with optical remote control.
Fig. 3: Autonomous implantation of wireless bioelectronics in the brain.
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