Cyborg science for the future

　　(未來(lái)的機(jī)器人科學(xué))

　　Lastupdated: Tuesday 12 August 2014 at 12am PST

　　No longer justfantastical fodder for sci-fi buffs, cyborg technology is bringing us tangibleprogress toward real-life electronic skin, prosthetics and ultraflexiblecircuits. Now taking this human-machine concept to an unprecedented level,pioneering scientists are working on the seamless marriage between electronicsand brain signaling with the potential to transform our understanding of howthe brain works - and how to treat its most devastating diseases.

　　Their presentation tookplace at the 248th National Meeting & Exposition of the American ChemicalSociety (ACS), the world's largest scientific society.

　　"By focusing on thenanoelectronic connections between cells, we can do things no one has donebefore," says Charles M. Lieber, Ph.D. "We're really going into a newsize regime for not only the device that records or stimulates cellularactivity, but also for the whole circuit. We can make it really look and behavelike smart, soft biological material, and integrate it with cells and cellularnetworks at the whole-tissue level. This could get around a lot of serioushealth problems in neurodegenerative diseases in the future."

　　These disorders, such asParkinson's, that involve malfunctioning nerve cells can lead to difficultywith the most mundane and essential movements that most of us take for granted:walking, talking, eating and swallowing.

　　Scientists are workingfuriously to get to the bottom of neurological disorders. But they involve thebody's most complex organ - the brain - which is largely inaccessible todetailed, real-time scrutiny. This inability to see what's happening in thebody's command center hinders the development of effective treatments for diseasesthat stem from it.

　　By usingnanoelectronics, it could become possible for scientists to peer for the firsttime inside cells, see what's going wrong in real time and ideally set them ona functional path again.

　　For the past severalyears, Lieber has been working to dramatically shrink cyborg science to a levelthat's thousands of times smaller and more flexible than other bioelectronicresearch efforts. His team has made ultrathin nanowires that can monitor andinfluence what goes on inside cells. Using these wires, they have builtultraflexible, 3-D mesh scaffolding with hundreds of addressable electronicunits, and they have grown living tissue on it. They have also developed thetiniest electronic probe ever that can record even the fastest signaling betweencells.

　　Rapid-fire cellsignaling controls all of the body's movements, including breathing andswallowing, which are affected in some neurodegenerative diseases. And it's atthis level where the promise of Lieber's most recent work enters the picture.

　　In one of the lab'slatest directions, Lieber's team is figuring out how to inject their tiny,ultraflexible electronics into the brain and allow them to become fullyintegrated with the existing biological web of neurons. They're currently inthe early stages of the project and are working with rat models.

　　"It's hard to saywhere this work will take us," he says. "But in the end, I believeour unique approach will take us on a path to do something reallyrevolutionary."

　　Title

　　Nanoelectronicsmeetsbiology: From new tools to electronic therapeutics

　　Abstract

　　Nanoscale materialsenable unique opportunities at the interface between the physical and lifesciences, and the interfaces between nanoelectronic devices and cells, cellnetworks, and tissue makes possible communication between these systems at thelength scale relevant to biological function. In this presentation, thedevelopment of nanowire nanoelectronic devices and their application aspowerful tools for the recording and stimulation from the level of single cellsto tissue will be discussed. First, a brief introduction to nanowirenanoelectronic devices as well as comparisons to other tools will be presentedto illuminate the unique strengths and opportunities enabled by activeelectronic devices. Second, opportunities for the creation of powerful newprobes capable of intracellular recording and stimulation at scales heretoforenot possible with existing electrophysiology techniques will be discussed.Third, we will take an 'out-of-the-box' look and consider mergingnanoelectronics with cell networks in three-dimensions (3D). We will introducegeneral methods and provide examples of synthetic 'cyborg' tissues innervatedwith nanoelectronic sensor elements that enabling recording and modulating activityin 3D for these engineered tissues. In addition, we will discuss extension ofthese nanoelectronic scaffold concepts for the development of revolutionaryprobes for acute and chronic brain mapping as well as their potential as futureelectronic therapeutics. The prospects for broad-ranging applications in thelife sciences as the distinction between electronic and living systems isblurred in the future will be discussed.