In 2004, Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov at the University of Manchester in England achieved their breakthrough Graphene was isolated for the first time. A flat form of carbon made up of a single layer of atoms, graphene is the thinnest material known and one of the strongest. Hailed as a miracle material, it earned Geim and Novoselov an award Nobel Prize in Physics 2010.
Twenty years later, graphene is finally being put to use in batteries, sensors, semiconductors, air conditioners and even headphones. And now, it is being tested on human brains.
This morning, surgeons at the University of Manchester temporarily placed a thin Scotch tape-like implant made of graphene onto the patient’s cerebral cortex – the outermost layer of the brain. Manufactured by Spanish company InBrain Neuroelectronics, the technology is one of a kind brain-computer interfacea device that collects and decodes brain signals. InBrain is one of many companies, including Elon Musk Neural connectionBCI development.
“We are aiming to have a commercial product that can decode and map the brain and can be used in a variety of disorders,” said Carolina Aguilar, CEO and co-founder of InBrain. different”.
Brain mapping is a technique used to help plan brain surgery. For example, when removing a brain tumor, surgeons will place electrodes on the brain to determine the location of motor and speech function in the brain so that the tumor can be safely removed without does not affect the patient’s ability to move or speak.
In today’s surgery, the implant was installed in 79 minutes. The patient had brain surgery to remove the tumor and agreed to participate in the experiment. At that time, researchers observed that the InBrain device could distinguish between healthy and cancerous brain tissue with micrometer-scale accuracy.
The University of Manchester is the site of InBrain’s first-in-human study, which will test the graphene device on up to 10 patients undergoing brain surgery for other reasons. Objectives of the study, funded by the European Commission Graphene flagship flagship project, aimed at proving the safety of graphene when in direct contact with the human brain.
David Coopere, the neurosurgeon who performed the surgery, said the InBrain device is more flexible than conventional electrodes, allowing it to conform better to the brain’s surface. “From a surgical perspective, that means we can place it in places where it would be difficult for us to place electrodes,” he said. The main electrodes used for brain mapping are platinum iridium discs embedded in silicon. “So they’re pretty tough,” Cooper said.
In contrast, the InBrain device is a transparent sheet that sits on the surface of the brain. Half the thickness of a human hair, it contains 48 microscopic deconvoluted graphene electrodes, each measuring just 25 micrometers. The company is developing a second type of implant that penetrates brain tissue and can deliver precise electrical stimulation.
The surface device alone can be used for brain mapping, but Aguilar said the company is also integrating the two devices and plans to test them together to treat neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s.
