MIT’s Super-Thin Wires Are Leading to a New Age in Brain Implants
“Brain research has often relied on devices that manipulate electrical, chemical, or optical signals separately. Combining these was usually “somewhat probabilisitic,” according to Polina Anikeeva, one of the more than a dozen researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and elsewhere involved in the study. “We said, wouldn’t it be nice if we had a device that could just do it all.”
The result was an optogenetic device that uses fibers just about 200 micrometers across, designed to mimic the flexibility of brain tissue. These multifunctional fibers were crafted using a technique researcher Benjamin Grena described as being similar to that used to make the Napoleon pastry mille feuille. Graphite flakes were added to conductive polyethylene, which was then compressed. Another sprinkling of flakes was added, the polyethlyene was compressed again, and so on until multiple layers were created. This method increased the conductivity of the polymers by four or five times…”
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