‘Ultra-fine electronic tattoos are applied to the surface of brain cells to check health abnormalities remotely in advance’ (?)
It sounds like a story in a science fiction (SF) novel or movie, but researchers at Johns Hawkins University in the United States have succeeded in putting the first button for this. This is a technology that may not be feasible in the near future.
The research team announced that they succeeded in developing a so-called electronic tattoo, a nanoscale sensor/part combination (array) made of gold that can be attached to each brain cell of a mouse, and attached it for 16 hours.
The size of the electronic tattoo is only one tenth of the head of a pin used in everyday life, making it difficult to identify with the naked eye. This electronic tattoo, which is made up of nano-sized dots and nano-sized wires, surprisingly ‘sticks to’ and ‘adapts’ to the shape of living cells.
Nanoscale electronic tattoos on brain surface cells?
An electronic tattoo array composed of gold (Au) nano dots and nano wires (wires) covering rat brain fibroblasts. It is treated with a false color and has a yellow color. (Photo = Johns Hopkins University)
Nanotechnology has been used to probe and implant complex materials for tissue engineering, drug delivery, or diagnostic purposes in human skin and internal organs.
Now, researchers at Johns Hopkins University in the US are trying to use nanomaterial electronic tattoos (electronic parts and sensors) attached to biological brain cells to track the health status of individual cells, thereby giving early warning in case of health problems.
As the first step, they announced that they had succeeded in attaching ultra-fine electronic tattoos (electronic sensors and component arrays) in which metal nanodots and nanowires were combined like a net to the brain cells of living mice.
According to the research team, for the first time in history, they succeeded in attaching a 300-nanometer-class (1 nanometer = 1/1 billion) array (connective gate) to the brain cells of a living mouse and making it stick to them. In general, the size of living cells is 100 micrometers (1 micron · 1 μm = 1 millionth of a meter).
The nanoelectronics follow the wet, fluid outer structure of brain cells and have tattoo-like arrangements that cling to the cells as they contract. It also allows the placement of optical or electronic devices in these living cells. Attaching arrays of nanometer-scale electronics to living cells (albeit with different uses for now) appears to be a cool technology far more sophisticated and advanced than Elon Musk’s brain implants.
The researchers were able to create nanoscale arrays thanks to nano-patterning technology using nanoimprint lithography (NIL), which has revolutionized the modern electronics and optics industries.
“If you imagine where all this is going in the future, we can see the state of individual cells and the environment surrounding them in real time,” said David Gracias, a Johns Hopkins University professor of chemistry and biomolecular engineering who is responsible for the development of electronic tattoo technology. “We will have sensors that can be monitored and controlled remotely.” “If we have technology that can track the health of isolated cells, we can diagnose and treat disease much earlier and not have to wait until whole organs are damaged,” he said.
Professor Gracias, who started working on the development of biosensor technology that is non-toxic and non-invasive to the body, said that this non-toxic gold electronic tattoo bridges the gap between living cells or tissues and existing sensors and electronic materials. He said that the ultra-fine sensors arranged like these tiny thin tattoos are essentially like barcodes or QR codes.
First case of living body and nanoscale sensors attached
Electron micrograph of mouse brain fibroblasts covered with a thin porous film and gold nanodots. (Photo = American Chemical Society)
Professor Gracias said, “We are talking about attaching something like electronic tattoos to tiny biological cells that are only a few tenths of the size of a pin head.” said
The researchers created the tattoo in the form of an array of gold, a non-toxic material in electronic wiring and well-known for its ability to prevent signal loss or distortion. They attached the array to cells that build and maintain the body’s tissues, called fibroblasts. Then, after treating this gold (Au) nanopattern array of less than 300 nm with molecular adhesive, a thin plate (alginate hydrogel film) with gel-like properties that dissolves when gold is attached to cells is used to form a cell secretion membrane (extracellular matrix). combined with Previous studies have used hydrogels to attach nanotechnology to human skin and internal organs of animals.
The research team revealed that their sensor structures (electronic tattoos) were able to stick to the soft cells of the brain for up to 16 hours even while they were moving.
Demonstration of complex nanopattern attachment in living cells
The Gracias Johns Hopkins University research team attached electronic tattoos (electronic sensors and component arrays) made of gold nanodots and gold nanowires to mouse brain cells. Through this, it was proved that biological cells and nanoscale electronic devices are compatible without side effects.
By showing how to attach nanowires and nanodots to single cells, a Johns Hopkins University research team is solving a long-standing challenge of making ultrafine optical sensors and electronics compatible with biological materials at the single cell level.
Professor Gracias said, “We have shown that complex nanopatterns can be attached to living cells without allowing the cells to die. It is a very important test result that living cells can live and move together with the tattoo. “There is often a significant incompatibility between living cells and the methods engineers use to make (ultra-micro)electronics.”
An important achievement of the team is the ability to attach nanodots and nanowires in the form of tattoo-like assemblages (arrays). In order for researchers to use this technology for tracking biometric information, they need to be able to arrange sensors and wires in specific patterns. It is also different from the way it is arranged in an electronic chip. This is because sensors and wiring must be arranged in a specific pattern to track biometric information. Gracias said, “This (electronic tattoo) is an arrangement with a certain spacing. It’s not a bunch of random nanodots.”
The research team is preparing to attach more complex nanocircuits to brain cells that will allow the electronic tattoo to remain attached to living cells for a longer period of time and continuously transmit bioinformation.
They also want to experiment with live cells from animals other than mice.
“This is the first step toward attaching sensors and electronics to living cells,” said David Gracias, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Johns Hopkins University who led the development of the technology.
Humans put the biochip (VeriChip) that appeared in the 007 movie between their fingers and eventually use it in reality. The idea of treating disease by inserting a chip into the brain has already been a product of imagination for as long as it appeared in the 1972 science fiction novel ‘The Terminal Man’. However, as full-scale research is underway under the name of brain implant and various achievements are coming out, it is gradually becoming a reality. I wonder if the electronic tattoo attached to the surface of the brain at Johns Hopkins University will follow a similar path. When that era comes, humans may become advanced cyborgs as they electronicize other parts of the body.
2023-08-11 00:07:07
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