Graphene-Based Interfaces Do Not Alter Target Nerve Cells

Coal and Related Carbon Resources / Lignite, Graphite, Graphene, & Carbon Uses

Date posted: 02/10/16

Sina Fogden reports that a team from the Graphene Flagship has recently published work showing how it is possible to interface graphene with neuron cells while maintaining the integrity of these vital cells. This work was an interdisciplinary collaboration between the University of Trieste in Italy, the University Castilla-La Mancha in Spain and the Cambridge Graphene Centre, with nanotechnologists, chemists, biophysicists and neurobiologists all playing an important role. The Graphene Flagship is a European initiative which promotes a collaborative approach to research with an aim of helping to translate graphene out of the academic laboratory, through local industry and into society. Scientists have always found the human brain endlessly fascinating and our understanding of the brain has increased to such a degree that by interfacing directly between the brain and the outside world they can now harness and control some of its functions. For instance, by measuring the brain electrical impulses sensory functions can be recovered. This can be used to control robotic arms for amputee patients or any number of basic processes for paralysed patients, from speech to movement of objects in the world around them. Whereas by interfering with these electrical impulses motor disorders (such as epilepsy or Parkinson's) can start to be controlled. Scientists have made this possible by developing electrodes that can be placed deep within the brain. These electrodes connect directly to neurons and transmit their electrical signals away from the body, allowing their meaning to be decoded. The interface between neurons and electrodes has often been problematic, not only do the electrodes need to be highly sensitive to electrical impulses but they need to be stable in the body without altering the tissue they measure. Too often the modern electrodes used for this interface (based on tungsten or silicon) suffer from partial or complete loss of signal over time.