Market and product

Biological implants that communicate with the brain to control paralysed limbs or provide vision to the blind are one step closer thanks to a US professor.

Brian Collins, an assistant professor of physics at Washington State University, along with an international team of scientists, has developed methods to improve the performance of a conductive plastic that can be used in devices that interface with the human body.

The material also could be used for better energy storage in the next generation of battery technology and might find its way into other flexible future applications.

Collins said: “Because this material is biocompatible, it could be used in a wide array of medical implants and other on-the-body technologies.

“Circuits made with this polymer or another material like it could lead to clothing embedded with sensors, displays, even power sources, and might one day result in robotics that look, feel and even operate just like biological entities.”

To date, the problem with polymer-based electronics has been a lack of understanding in how their nanostructure affects performance, and how to optimise that performance.

Collins added: “To have a device that can interface with the brain, it would need to be sensitive enough to detect faint ionic signals of neuronal activity and then capable of converting these to electrical signals that can be interpreted by a computer.

“Unfortunately, there are very few non-toxic commercial materials that can do this.

“With our research, it will be possible to achieve the critical capabilities of both types of conduction for polymer materials that can be used in the development of future devices.”