hit me with your rhythm stick

Bioactive carbon-nanotube agarose composites for neural engineering and neural interface 
Patent US 20120237557 A1  (2010)

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is generally recognized that cortical neural prosthetic devices are limited to 12 months or less before their recording performance deteriorates substantially. This limitation lies with the fact that a sustained reactive response develops upon insertion of the probe. This response, known as gliosis, diminishes the long-term performance of devices. Control of the brain cell response to the inserted device could lead to improvement of its long-term performance, devices smaller in size lead to a reduction in the chronic glial response through the restoration of neuronal and astroglial synapses. Therefore, smaller and more flexible devices may reduce reactive responses and improve long-term performance, e.g., recording of neural signals.

Carbon nanotubes (CNT) display unique characteristics of superior conductivity, tremendous stiffness and a high aspect ratio. As such, they have been extensively employed in novel materials stemming from their ability to absorb strain and induce conductivity. In addition, it has been shown that macroscopic materials made out of CNT are in fact biocompatible thus the incorporation of carbon nanotubes maintains a material's structural stability during cell growth.

This evolving interest in natural polymers destined for drug delivery and tissue engineering has led to the emergence of new hybrid materialsh modifications results in a substantial increase in cell attachment These biosensors /bio"chips" are non-biodegradable, and, therefore will allow for long term performance and integration of the carbon nanotubes and avoid disintegration of the fabricated structures. Agarose is a cheap and abundant polysaccharide, sourced from plants (algae) and can be grown in highly controlled environments.

While agarose is preferred, essentially any polysaccharide with one or more of the foregoing advantages of agarose over other natural polymers may be used.

Another embodiment of the present invention relates to the use of such inherently conductive fibers as microscale neural recording devices in the central nervous system (CNS). They can advance the field of neural prosthetics through long-term biocompatibility and performance allowing the recording devices to interface with brain tissue, for the enhancement of neural integration. and the reduction of gliosis formation.