Graphene chip implants could transform brain tumor surgery, UK trial finds | cancer research

An innovative device designed to transform surgical treatment of brain tumors is heading toward its first clinical trial in what scientists say could be a major medical breakthrough.

Brain chips can pinpoint cancer cells through differences in their electrical emissions compared to healthy neural tissue.

The postage-stamp-sized device is made of graphene, which is 200 times stronger than steel and only one atom thick. Graphene was invented 20 years ago by University of Manchester scientists Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, who later won the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work.

Since then, scientists have been working to exploit graphene's remarkable conductive properties to develop new electrical and magnetic sensors and other devices. But a flexible brain chip currently being tested at Salford Royal Hospital is being hailed as a medical first. One of the team leaders, Kostas Kostarelos, professor of nanomedicine at the University of Manchester, said this was the first clinical trial conducted anywhere in the world using a graphene-based medical device.

A brain-computer interface (BCI) device has been designed and built by an international team of scientists to translate the monitoring of electrical impulses in brain cells using previously undetectable frequencies. The first use of the technology will be to distinguish cancer cells from healthy cells, ensuring brain tumor surgery is done in a highly precise manner, Kostarelos said.

Those goals are very important, doctors note. In the UK, more than 12,700 people are diagnosed with a brain tumor each year, and more than 5,000 people die from the disease each year. He added that anything we can do to improve these rates will be a significant achievement.

However, the team that developed the BCI device has helped scientists study many other conditions, including stroke and epilepsy, by giving them a much better understanding of how healthy cells conduct electrical signals compared to cells affected by pathological conditions. I believe it will happen.

This is a clinical milestone that paves the way for advances in both neurodetoxification and its application as a therapeutic intervention, he said. Carolina Aguilar, co-founder of Inbrain Neuroelectronics, founded the company to capitalize on its use. Graphene is used in brain research and therapy.

Cells in the brain interact by exchanging electrical impulses, a process that underlies our thoughts, behavior, and perception of the world. But monitoring exactly how these cells communicate in this way has been a major headache for scientists. We can study some of the electrical signals emitted by brain cells. But very low and very high frequencies are very difficult to detect in a living brain, Kostarelos said.

Currently only mid-range frequencies can be monitored. Crucially, BCI chips can pinpoint a wide range of electrical signals in the brain, including very high and very low frequencies.

To use the device, part of a patient's skull is removed and a very thin chip with thousands of electrical contacts is placed on top of the patient's brain. Transmitters send electrical signals to stimulate brain cells, and tiny receivers pick up the responses.

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Cancer cells, unlike host nerve cells, do not respond to electrical stimulation generated by the chip, Kostarelos said.

This allows the surgical team to identify neurons very close to the tumor, which is very important. The team must be especially careful if the tumor is located in an area of ​​the brain involved in language. Depending on the signal from the graphene chip, diseased cells can be removed more accurately and reliably.

The ability of BCI chips to detect very high and very low frequency signals in brain cells is important for other reasons as well. It is known that in strokes and epileptic seizures very low frequency signals are transmitted from cells in the affected brain area, and this technique opens up new ways to explore what happens immediately after a person experiences these events.

Technologies that rely on graphene's amazing properties could help direct surgical interventions in the brain and also enable fundamental new understanding of how cells in our brain function and interact in disease states, Kostarelos said. said:

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