The electronic tent is smoothly attached to the curved surface of the brain-mimicking tissue (1% agarose gel). Courtesy: Seoul National University College of Engineering
A team from Seoul National University's College of Engineering has developed a biodegradable electronic tent technology that can diagnose brain diseases using needles.
The technology was developed by Professor Kang's research team (including Dr. Bae Jae-young, doctoral student Kim Young-seo and Professor Kang Seung-gyun) in collaboration with researchers from UNIST (Dr. Hwang Kyung-seok and Professor Kim Ju-young) and Dankook University Hospital (Professor Jeong Geun-hyun) and was published in the journal Nature Electronics on August 5.
The team's research was driven by the insight that few people would be willing to undergo surgery to have a brain chip implanted, as recently demonstrated by clinical trials by Neuralink, a neuroscience startup founded by Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Implanting a brain-computer interface (BCI) device requires risky surgery to remove part of the skull and insert an electronic chip.
Furthermore, once the device is no longer needed, it may trigger an immune response, requiring further surgery to remove it. The research team recognized the need for alternatives that overcome the highly invasive nature of existing methods that require surgery, for the widespread adoption of bio- and brain-engineering technologies.
A minimally invasive, large-area brain surface electrode insertion process using a biodegradable electronic tent. Courtesy of Seoul National University College of Engineering.
From a clinical perspective, current diagnostic methods for epilepsy and Parkinson's disease require the use of large-area brain electrodes and the removal of significant portions of the skull, which carries the risk of serious side effects such as cerebral hemorrhage, brain infection, cerebrospinal fluid leak, and complications such as postoperative intracranial hypertension.
To reduce the burden of such surgeries, the research team developed a “biodegradable electronic tent” and proposed an innovative way to non-invasively diagnose brain diseases.
Professor Kang's research team at Seoul National University developed a brain diagnostic technology using electronic devices. The co-first authors of the research paper, Dr. Bae Jae-yeon, doctoral student Kim Yeong-seo, and Dr. Hwang Kyung-seok, are all affiliated with Korean research institutions, highlighting the potential for this research result to significantly strengthen Korea's technological leadership in the fusion of medicine and research.
In developing the “biodegradable electronic tent technology,” the research team focused on designing the electronic tent to spread evenly and without damage in the narrow space of a few millimeters between the skull and the brain by using a biodegradable shape-memory polymer and an extremely thin, biodegradable inorganic electronic device. The electronic tent, injected through a small hole in the skull using a needle, can spread over a large palm-sized area within the space between the skull and the brain, covering the entire brain.
(a) Shape recovery process of the electronic tent in a skull-brain model. (b) Biodegradation process of the electronic tent in phosphate buffer solution (PBS). Courtesy of College of Engineering, Seoul National University.
Once diagnostic testing is completed, the device is naturally broken down in the body, minimizing the problem of residual medical devices remaining in the body for long periods of time and causing side effects, as occurs with conventional diagnostic methods for epilepsy and Parkinson's disease.
The research team also inserted electrodes using the biodegradable electronic tent into the brains of animal models and successfully recorded EEG signals for two weeks. Furthermore, they confirmed the potential for in vivo applications by monitoring the biodegradation process of the electronic tent in real time over a long period of time.
The biodegradable electronic tent is expected to have a variety of applications in the medical field in the future, and is particularly expected to bring about major changes in the methods of diagnosing intractable epilepsy and Parkinson's disease.
Unlike traditional invasive surgical procedures, which always carry risks, this technology offers a minimally invasive way to insert electronic devices using needles, providing a better diagnostic environment for patients. Additionally, once the electronic devices have completed their role, they will naturally degrade in the body, eliminating the need for additional surgery to remove residual medical devices, making it a safer option for patients.
The technology is expected to also have applications in diagnosing other brain diseases, such as stroke and hydrocephalus. In addition to its diagnostic and therapeutic applications, it could also alleviate public aversion to traditional electrode insertion methods used in brain-computer interface (BCI) technologies, such as those tested in Neuralink's brain implant experiments, and increase the feasibility of these technologies.
Further information: Jae-Young Bae et al., “Biodegradable, self-deployable electronic tent electrodes for brain-cortex interfaces.” Nature Electronics (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41928-024-01216-x
Seoul National University, College of Engineering
Citation: Biodegradable Electronic Tent Technology Allows Less Invasive Brain Disease Diagnosis (August 12, 2024) Retrieved August 12, 2024 from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-08-biodegradable-electronic-tent-technology-invasive.html
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