Andre, 2004 Geim and Konstantin Novoselov of the University of Manchester in the UK First isolated grapheneGraphene, a flat single layer of carbon made of atoms, is the thinnest material available and one of the strongest. Hailed as a wonder material, Geim and Novoselov 2010 Nobel Prize.
Two decades later, graphene is finally making its way into batteries, sensors, semiconductors, air conditioners, and even headphones — and now it’s being tested on the human brain.
This morning, surgeons at the University of Manchester temporarily placed a thin, Scotch-tape-like graphene implant into the patient’s brain’s outermost layer, the cortex. The technology, developed by Spanish company InBrain Neuroelectronics, is a type of brain-computer interface, a device that collects and deciphers brain signals. InBrain is one of several companies developing BCIs, including Elon Musk’s Neuralink.
“We aim to develop a commercial product that can decode the brain and map the brain and can be used for a variety of disorders,” said Carolina Aguilar, CEO and co-founder of InBrain.
Brain mapping is a technique used to help plan brain surgery. For example, when removing a brain tumor, surgeons can place electrodes in the brain to identify the location of motor and language functions in the brain, allowing them to safely remove the tumor without affecting the patient’s ability to move or speak.
During today’s operation, the implant was worn for 79 minutes. The patient had already undergone surgery to remove a brain tumor and had consented to the experiment. During that time, the researchers observed that the InBrain device was able to distinguish between healthy and cancerous brain tissue with micrometer-level accuracy.
The University of Manchester will be the site of InBrain’s first human trials, testing the graphene device on up to 10 patients who have already had brain surgery for other reasons. The goal of the research, which is funded by the European Commission, is to: Graphene Flagship The goal of this project is to demonstrate that graphene is safe for direct contact with the human brain.
David Coupe, the neurosurgeon who performed the operation, says the in-brain device is more flexible than traditional electrodes and conforms better to the brain’s surface. “From a surgical standpoint, it has the potential to place electrodes in places that are difficult to place,” he says. The main electrodes used for brain mapping are platinum-iridium disks embedded in silicon, “so they’re reasonably stiff,” Coupe says.
In contrast, the InBrain device is a transparent sheet that is applied to the surface of the brain and contains 48 tiny decoding graphene electrodes, each 25 micrometres thick, half the thickness of a human hair.The company is developing a second type of implant that can penetrate brain tissue to deliver precise electrical stimulation.
While the surface device alone can be used to map the brain, Aguilar said the company plans to integrate the two devices and eventually test them together as treatments for neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s.
