Silicon Chips Wired With Nerve Cells Could Enable New Brain/Machine Interfaces

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have recently began studying the possibility of creating computer chips that are wired together with living nerve cells. A team at the university has found that mouse nerve cells are capable of connecting with each other across a network of tiny tubes threaded through a semiconductor material. These cells have an affinity for the tubes, which are made of silicon and germanium just large enough for the nerve cells' tendrils to navigate. The tubes do not permit actual cell bodies to pass through but the tendrils are capable of fitting complex designs such as helical curves to create physical connections between two nerve cells. The researchers are still studying under what nature the cells are communicating, but it seems that implementing sensors into the chips would yield information about the connections. The ability for the nerve cell tendrils to be guided along a path by the tubules, however, may allow nerve-electronic hybrid chips to become a source of neurological drug testing or research neurological disorders such as Parkinson's more thoroughly and completely. Perhaps even in the future, artificial limbs may be able to be controlled through this nerve-computer interface as the methods by which nerve cell-cell interaction in this way becomes more evident.

This article interests me because of its applicability to tissue engineering in which prosthetics may one day be controlled by the aforementioned methods. Neurological disorders also interest me and a new means by which complex disorders such as Parkinson's may be researched is promising for the future of neurological medicine. Furthermore, a cross-linking network of nerve cells via silicon tubules invites the possibility of one day reconstructing damaged connections within the brain and reversing damage associated with nerve cell destruction which may lead to severed communication with various parts of the brain.

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-03/silicon-chips-wired-nerve-cells-could-enable-new-brain-machine-interfaces

Andrew Wagner VTPP 435-502