Scientists Can Now Send Signals to Brain Cells Using Smartphones

Here is some exciting news when it comes to science. A group of scientists from Korea and the United States of America have completed a big project and invented a device that can have a direct impact on the control of neural circuits. A small brain implant was used for this experiment, and they have controlled it using a smartphone!

Nature Biomedical Engineering publishers are claiming that this device can be of massive impact when it comes to attempts to find out more about brain diseases like Alzheimer’s, depression, addiction, different sorts of pains and Parkinson’s disease. It’s a huge step towards by all means. The device is using disposable drug cartridges and low-energy Bluetooth. It can easily be directed towards certain neutrons in the brain, use drugs and provide light for a long period of time.

The lead scientist of this project Raza Qazi from the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Tech has stated that this device is one of the biggest achievements in the last couple of years, allowing chronic chemical and optical modulation of neurons. No one was able to achieve this in the past. He also added that this new technology is going to replace the previous models completely, as it is much more practical and useful. The previous ways to reach the neurons included metal tubes and different types of fibers to ensure drugs and light have been delivered. This method imposed several movement limitations on the subject. Besides the physical connections and a lot of wires, it also causes a lesion in the softer part of the tissue in the long run. This means that older methods could not be used for long term implantations.

The main challenge for the Korean scientists was how to deal with exhaustion and evaporation of certain drugs. Their intention was to establish chronic wireless medicine delivery. They came up with the idea to build a neural device with replaceable parts. This is going to allow scientists to perform studies on critical brain cells that can last for three months or more before running out of the medicine.

The current interface on a smartphone looks very simple and nice. They are using it to trigger any desired combination within seconds, as well as sequence light, making sure that medicine is delivered to the targeted spot. It is very interesting to add that they are using animals for these experiments, and subjects don’t even have to be in the laboratory. Wireless devices are the future when it comes to studies in this field, and this could also become an automated process in the near future.

According to a study done by bettingtips4you.com into probabilities and odds related to successful smartphones products, there was some negative reception in the public in the early stage. Some of the protestants were afraid that this could lead to unwanted mind-control tests, talking about the ethics and points to cover before moving to something more complex. The loudest person against this was Lily Toomey coming from Curtain University.

Professor Jae-Woong Jeong also had a massive impact on this project. He is teaching electrical engineering at the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Tech. There was an official statement of his talking about the team, achievements, and path towards success. Jeong also added he is personally very interested to impose additional improvements to this technology and maybe even make an implant for clinical applications.

They have received a lot of words of praise coming from colleagues. One of the loudest was the support coming from Michael Bruchas, a professor of anaesthesiology and pharmacology at the University of Washington School of Medicine. He was thrilled with the results and project as a whole, particularly mentioning a new way to dissect the neural cells. He is planning to use the new device for the most complex pharmacological tests, which could also lead to new discoveries in the area of addiction, emotional disorders and pain. Hopefully, scientists will be able to take advance of the latest achievements and finally uncover many brain diseases.

It was reported that this project was financed by grants from the National Research Foundation of Korea, National Institute of Health in the USA, National Institute on Drug Abuse and Mallinckrodt Professorship.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes.