Scientists can now use smartphones to manipulate brain cells

south Korea and the United States have developed a device that can control neural circuits using tiny brain implants controlled by smartphones.
Writing in the journal Nature Medicine Engineering, the researchers said the device could speed up the detection of brain diseases such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, addiction, depression and pain.
The device uses Lego-like replacement cartridges and powerful Bluetooth low-energy devices that can target specific neurons of interest with drugs and light for long periods of time.
“ Wireless neural devices are capable of achieving chronic chemical and optical neuromodulation that has not been possible before," said Raza Qazi, a researcher at the Korea Institute of Advanced Science and Technology (KAIST) and the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Kazi says the technology companies go far beyond the traditional methods used by neuroscientistes, who often use rigid metal tubes and fibers to transmit drugs and light. In addition to limiting subjects' movement through physical connections to large devices, their relatively rigid structure over time causes the lesions brain tissue to soften and is therefore not suitable for long-term implantation. While some efforts have been made to partially mitigate adverse tissue reactions by combining soft probes and wireless platforms, previous solutions have been limited by their inability to deliver drugs over long periods of time and by large and complex control settings.
To achieve chronic wireless drug delivery, scientists must address the key challenges of drug exhaustion and evaporation. Researchers from South Korea's Institute of Advanced Science and Technology and the University of Washington in Seattle have teamed up to develop a neural device with an alternative drug box that allows neuroscientistes to study the same brain circuits within months without fear of the drug being used up.
These "plug and play" cartridges are assembled into a brain implant for mice with a soft, ultra-thin probe (the thickness of human hair) consisting of a microflow channel and tiny LEDs (less than a grain of salt) for unlimited drug doses and light transfer.
By controlling the elegant and simple user interface on a smartphone, neuroscientistes can easily trigger any particular combination or precise sequence of light and drug delivery from any implanted target animal without having to experiment in the lab. Using these wireless neural devices, researchers can also easily set up fully automated animal studies in which the behavior of one animal can affect the behavior of other animals positively or negatively by conditionally triggering light and/or drug delivery."This revolutionary device is the result of advanced electronic design and powerful micro-nano-engineering," said Jae-Woong Jeong, a professor of electrical engineering at KAIST.

technology will help researchers in many ways, said Michael Bruchas, a professor of anesthesiology and pain medicine and pharmacology at the University of Washington School of Medicine.
“ It allows us to better analyze the behavioral basis of neural circuits and how specific neuromodulants in the brain regulate behavior in a variety of ways," he said.
Jeong team at KAIST developed soft electronic devices for wearables and implantable devices, and neuroscientist at the University of Washington's Brucas Laboratory studied brain circuits that control stress, depression, addiction, pain and other neuropsychological disorders. A global collaborative effort by engineers and neuroscientistes over three years and dozens of design iterations has led to the successful validation of this powerful brain implant in free-moving mice, which researchers believe could really accelerate the discovery of the brain and its diseases.
The work was funded by the Korea National Research Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the National Institutes of Drug Abuse and Professor Mallinckrodt. （cyy123.com）