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Scholars and scientists alike all seem to be in agreement that nanotechnology will undoubtedly be a significant science in future years and this is evidenced by the noteworthy focus on and release of fresh nanotechnology news. Some are going as far as calling nanotech research the 21st century science. Current nanotech research which focuses directly on micro particles and nanostructures will be used in the future in cosmetics, beauty aids, wine flavorings, cleaning products, and in the production of self cleaning clothing.
The future of nanotechnology, as documented in recent nanotechnology news, also promises some considerable advances in the medical fields and in the food industries. This certainly is promising for anyone interested in the study of nanotechnology information and/or nanotechnology jobs. Yet, with all of the positive views pertaining to nanotechnology and the ever present advances in nanotechnology, some scientists and scholars actually fear the act of trusting the science, and are worried about the potential ramifications that may or may not accompany nanotechnologies.
Considerable concern exists with the question pertaining to what effect nanoparticles have on the human body, if any effect at all. This question, to this date, remains unanswered, and some scientists fear that the presence of nanoparticles in the human body, over time, may pose some sort of threat. Since nanoparticles are so tiny, there is considerable belief that nanoparticles can sneak through natural defenses, into cell membranes, and potentially transport foreign materials between human strands of DNA. The effects of nanoparticles on the human body have potentially harmful results and this prospect is considerably frightening to some. Some studies recently released aren’t too promising. Fish that have consumed carbon nanoparticles have been tested and have developed brain cancer, so there may indeed be a correlation between the two. Also, alternative studies conducted on rats reveal a correlation between inhaled carbon nanotubes and respiratory dysfunction: ailments considerably similar to the symptoms one develops from asbestos exposure.
John Balbus, Chief Health Scientist at Environmental Defense, asserts that there is little to fear, but that prudence is needed. There are currently some institutions which are demanding and campaigning for rigid checking systems and testing. Currently, the Food and Drug Administration announced that nanoparticles pose no public hazard and that anything manufactured with nanotechnology does not require unique and specified testing. This can prove detrimental to the public if, in the future, scientists suddenly begin revealing an issue with nanoparticles and how they affect human beings on a cellular level through exposure. The United Kingdom government recently released a report suggesting that stringent detection and nanoparticle measurement restrictions need to be implemented. The level of human exposure to nanoparticles also needs to be monitored, the degree of potential toxicity must be revealed, and the environmental effects of nanotechnology must also be assessed.

So when scientists uncovered an additional potential cause for this incurable form of lung cancer, the unthinkable became a reality.
According to researchers based out of the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars in Washington D.C., the early 90's development of carbon nanotubes has been an amazing feat for technological applications, however, it has not gone without its price. Specifically, carbon nanotubes may be causing harm to the human body in the form of mesothelioma cancer.
If the carbon nanotubes are introduced into the wrong environment, the development of lesions and inflammation of the lungs occurs - symptoms similar to that of mesothelioma cancer and asbestos exposure. Animals that were exposed to carbon nanotubes was how the researchers discovered the link. Dr. Andrew Maynard, who published a study in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, described the use of nanotubes and the potential link to mesothelioma cancer. The ability for nanotubes to conduct heat and electricity is what is driving their use, he said.
Mostly, Dr. Maynard explains, the nanotubes are being implemented into sports equipment. There are no regulations in place with nanotechnology or the use of nanotubes.
What Are Nanotubes?
Nanotubes have been deemed the poster child of nanotechnology, Maynard said. The nanotubes are cylindrical structures comprised of carbon atoms that have been rolled together. Maynard's study found that when mice were exposed to nanotubes, they developed asbestos-induced symptoms within the lungs. Nanotubes are considered safe until broken.
The use of nanotubes includes:
* a variety of sports equipment
* bicycle frames
* tennis rackets
* electronic gas detectors
* radios
Additionally, because of the strength of nanotubes, many consider its future use to vastly effect several business ventures and areas, and be widely used in industries including:
* aerospace
* automobile
* airplanes
* television box productions
* medical
* environmental uses
Working with Nanotubes
While the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is doing research on nanotoxicology, there is little knowledge or research currently available regarding the safety of using nanotechnology.
Additionally, Dr. Maynard noted that because of the ever-increasing nanotechnology industry, which is likely to be worth $2.6 trillion by 2014, it will be difficult to adequately and accurately assess nanotechnology safety because of the technology's quick growth, which is also being used in the food industry.
Transparency of nanotoxicology among some nanotechnologically-produced products may fall into the hands of manufacturers and producers, which John M. Balbus, heatlh program chief for the Environmental Defense Fund told the Washington Post that with open communications nanotechnology will flourish, but without it, another wave of unknowing mesothelioma victims will occur.
However, he noted that upfront communication regarding the dangers of nanotechnology with the public may increase because of the previous mistakes made by other industries in hiding mesothelioma conditions from the public.
Finding Help with Nanotube Related Mesothelioma
Individuals, especially nanotube factory workers who have previously worked with carbon nanotubes or have been exposed to the potential dangers associated with the nanotubes and developing mesothelioma should receive medical attention immediately. It may also become necessary for these individuals to locate a law firm with knowledge of mesothelioma-related litigation in order to develop a mesothelioma lawsuit.
Because of the nature of the industry and the continued funding flooding into carbon nanotube research it is important to develop a lawsuit that will also alert others, in a similar predicament, and provide aware of the potentially serious health risks associated with nanotechnology.
Further, because only 5 percent of the funding, which consists of billions of dollars annually, provided by the National Nanotechnology Institute is going toward health and safety research, it is important for individuals with nanotube-induced mesothelioma to develop a lawsuit that may offer monetary compensation to victims suffering from this irreversible and deadly lung cancer.
Copyright (c) 2008 Katie Kelley

These technologies include nanoarrays, protein arrays, nanopore technology, nanoparticles (NPs) as a contrivance in immunoassays and nanosensors, among others. Gold NPs and quantum dots (semiconductors) are the most widely used, but new materials are becoming available as more molecular entities are discovered as amenable to nanoscale design and fabrication. Crystal materials like those of gallium, phosphate, quartz, and ceramic are chosen for their durability and piezoelectric properties of developing and retaining an electric potential (charge) when subjected to mechanical stress. Another area of development is nanobiosensors, in which antibody-based piezoelectric nanobiosensors are well developed. [1],[2] Molecular technologies will hence advance and be in widespread use within a decade, and the maximum impact will be felt in biomarker research, cancer diagnosis, and detection of infectious microorganisms. Nanotechnology, thus extends the frontiers of molecular diagnostics to the nanoscale.
Nanotechnology-on-a-chip is one more dimension of microfluidic/lab-on-a-chip technology. The analyte detection is quick, sensitive, and has more manipulability when certain NPs are used as tags or labels. Magnetic NP on antibody serves as a label for specific antigen detection in magnetic immunoassay techniques. Here, the magnetic field generated by the magnetically labelled targets is detected with a magnetometer. Gold NP tagged on short segments of DNA (oligos) has been used for detection of genetic sequence in a sample. DNA nanomachines have been documented to function as biomolecular detectors for homogeneous assays . These assays require no separation steps; pipetting, incubation, and measurement steps alone are required. In these homogenous assays, the reaction is in solution format without solid phase anchoring, which could interfere with low-affinity interactions. The components of the assay are present in a reaction vessel even at the time of readout.
Yet another significant development is the availability now of sensors for point-of-care viral diagnostics. The technology is an interferometric biosensor immunoassay for direct and label-less detection of viruses. Monochromatic light from a laser source is coupled to a channel waveguide and is guided into four parallel channels (one reference channel and three measuring channels). This facilitates detection simultaneously of three different viruses as the individual channels are coated with specific antibodies. On exiting through the channels, the probe light is interfered, generating an interference pattern (phase change) on a monitor screen. The interference pattern gives information on concentration of virus particles in the reaction channel. The detection of avian influenza virus through whole-virus capture on a planar optical waveguide has been described. The assay response is based on the index of refraction changes that occur upon binding of virus particles to unique antigen-specific (haemagglutinin) antibodies on the waveguide surface.
Nanobiotechnologies are clinically applicable and possess the potential to be useful in laboratory diagnosis of infections in general and viral infections in particular. Nanotechnology is functional in the design of biochips as they enable the diagnosis at the molecule and single cell level and hence serve as a great advance in molecular diagnostics. Recently, functionalized NPs covalently linked to biological molecules such as antibodies, peptides, proteins, and nucleic acids have been developed as nanoprobes for molecular detection. These functionalized NPs can provide a direct rapid method of detection of viruses with high sensitivity.
Researchers from the Netherlands have developed a device for fast pathogen detection. It uses a laser coupled to a waveguide composed of four parallel optical channels, each coated with antibodies specific to a certain protein or virus. The application of the technology was demonstrated for the detection of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) by coating one of the waveguide channels with the appropriate herpes antibodies. The technique detected the virus over a range of concentrations ranging from as low as 10 3 /mL to 10 7 /mL. Combining the light exiting from the virus-specific channel and that from a reference channel, an interference pattern is generated. Virus binding to the antibody-coated waveguide is probed by the evanescent field of the guided light modes, causing a phase change and a change in the interference pattern, which is recognized by a monitoring device. The technology is claimed to potentially have wide application, as any antibody can be used to coat a channel for detection. [1] This sensor can be extended to any virus like human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus, HBV, HCV, or the avian influenza virus (H5N1), among others.
More technological approaches are reported, like application of a silver nanorod array SERS substrate. This is a spectroscopic assay based on surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) using silver nanorod array substrates. The SERS assay can detect spectral differences between viruses, viral strains, and viruses with gene deletions and is a method that can prove useful for rapid diagnostics

Recently announced in nanotechnology news is the fact that a postsecondary institution, that of McMaster University, has just received an all new electron microscope which presents to Canadian nano researchers the ability to observe atoms in better detail than ever before possible. According to Gianlugi Botton who is the Canadian Centre for Electron Microscopy Director at the University, the microscope is the best of its kind in the academic realm or at any university. The visual capabilities provided by this new microscope improve nano researchers’ ability to see atoms and their structures tenfold, and for a 15 million dollar price tag, it well should.
The microscope will eventually be used to study the nano structures and make ups of different materials including aluminum and gold. This will allow nano researchers to see the unique differences between atoms working alone and atoms working in bulk or clusters. According to the Brockhouse Institute for Materials Research at the University, John Preston, this new tool will give nano researchers a chance to see the unique properties of gold, a material that is more reactive and anti-microbial, and the opportunity to determine the reasons behind such properties.
This powerful microscope, identified as a Titan 80/300 was created in the Netherlands and was delivered to the University this summer. The microscope is now being added to the collection of microscopes the University offers to its nano researchers to examine atoms and their structures. According to the University’s president, Mo Elbestawi, this new microscope provides the university with an advantage over other Universities and nanotechnology researching institutions. The researchers at the University plan to examine hundreds of different products and materials to unravel the nano structures of the materials and the related properties. This microscope may also help nano researchers to identify how nanostructures affect humans too.
The subject of nanotechnology has faced much controversy, as is evident by a lot of today’s nano news stories. There is not enough known about nanotechnology and nanostructures to determine just how such structures interact and affect human beings. This powerful microscope will be able to see how nanostructures work, and may be able to help to identify potential hazards associated with nanostructures, if any at all exist. The microscope will prove to be a shared asset among nano researchers and plans are in the works to use it in a number of nano research projects.

AUSTIN, Texas— Engineers and scientists at The University of Texas at Austin have achieved a breakthrough in the use of a one-atom thick structure called “graphene” as a new carbon-based material for storing electrical charge in ultracapacitor devices, perhaps paving the way for the massive installation of renewable energies such as wind and solar power.
The researchers believe their breakthrough shows promise that graphene (a form of carbon) could eventually double the capacity of existing ultracapacitors, which are manufactured using an entirely different form of carbon. “Through such a device, electrical charge can be rapidly stored on the graphene sheets, and released from them as well for the delivery of electrical current and, thus, electrical power,” says Rod Ruoff, a mechanical engineering professor and a physical chemist. “There are reasons to think that the ability to store electrical charge can be about double that of current commercially used materials. We are working to see if that prediction will be borne out in the laboratory.”
Two main methods exist to store electrical energy: in re-chargeable batteries and in ultracapacitors which are becoming increasingly commercialized but are not yet as popularly known. An ultracapacitor can be used in a wide range of energy capture and storage applications and are used either by themselves as the primary power source or in combination with batteries or fuel cells. Some advantages of ultracapacitors over more traditional energy storage devices (such as batteries) include: higher power capability, longer life, a wider thermal operating range, lighter, more flexible packaging and lower maintenance, Ruoff says.
Ruoff and his team prepared chemically modified graphene material and, using several types of common electrolytes, have constructed and electrically tested graphene-based ultracapacitor cells. The amount of electrical charge stored per weight (called “specific capacitance”) of the graphene material has already rivaled the values available in existing ultracapacitors, and modeling suggests the possibility of doubling the capacity.
“Our interest derives from the exceptional properties of these atom-thick and electrically conductive graphene sheets, because in principle all of the surface of this new carbon material can be in contact with the electrolyte,” says Ruoff, who holds the Cockrell Family Regents Chair in Engineering #7. “Graphene’s surface area of 2630 square meters per gram (almost the area of a football field in about 1/500th of a pound of material) means that a greater number of positive or negative ions in the electrolyte can form a layer on the graphene sheets resulting in exceptional levels of stored charge.”
The U.S. Department of Energy has said that an improved method for storage of electrical energy is one of the main challenges preventing the substantial installation of renewable energies such as wind and solar power. Storage is vital for times when the wind doesn’t blow or the sun doesn’t shine. During those times, the stored electrical energy can be delivered through the electrical grid as needed.
Ruoff’s team includes graduate student Meryl Stoller and post-doctoral fellows Sungjin Park, Yanwu Zhu, and Jinho An, all from the Mechanical Engineering Department and the Texas Materials Institute at the university. Their findings will be published in the Oct. 8 edition of Nano Letters. The article was posted on the journal’s Web site this week.
This technology, Stoller says, has the promise of significantly improving the efficiency and performance of electric and hybrid cars, buses, trains and trams. Even everyday devices such as office copiers and cell phones benefit from the improved power delivery and long lifetimes of ultracapacitors.
Ruoff says significant implementation of wind farms for generation of electricity is occurring throughout the world and the United States, with Texas and California first and second in the generation of wind power.
According to the American Wind Energy Association, in 2007 wind power installation grew 45 percent in this country. Ruoff says if the energy production from wind turbine technology grew at 45 percent annually for the next 20 years, the total energy production (from wind alone) would almost equal the entire energy production of the world from all sources in 2007.
“While it is unlikely that such explosive installation and use of wind can continue at this growth rate for 20 years, one can see the possibilities, and also ponder the issues of scale,” he says. “Electrical energy storage becomes a critical component when very large quantities of renewable electrical energy are being generated.” ###
Funding and support was provided by the Texas Nanotechnology Research Superiority Initiative, The University of Texas at Austin and a Korea Research Foundation Grant for fellowship support for Dr. Park.
Ruoff's latest work to define the structure of graphite oxide appeared in the Sept. 26 issue of the journal Science. To read that story, go to: www.engr.utexas.edu/news/articles/.
For more information on Ruoff’s work, visit: bucky-central.me.utexas.edu/.
For more information, contact: Daniel J. Vargas, Cockrell School of Engineering, 512-471-7541, Daniel.vargas2@engr.utexas.edu; Rod Ruoff, Cockrell School of Engineering, 512-471-4691 or 847-370-4637, r.ruoff@mail.utexas.edu
About the Cockrell School of Engineering:
The Cockrell School ranks among the top ten engineering programs in the United States and aspires to move into the top five. With the nation's fourth highest number of faculty members elected to the National Academy of Engineering, the Cockrell School's more than 7,000 students work with many of the world's finest engineering educators and researchers. This environment prepares graduates to become engineering leaders and innovators working for the betterment of society.
Contact: Rod Ruoff r.ruoff@mail.utexas.edu 512-471-4691 University of Texas at Austin

Recently, zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorod field-effect transistor (FET), the first of its kind as a nano device in China, was successfully fabricated by scientists with the CAS Institute of Microelectronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IME).
ZnO is a wide bandgap semiconductor and an important multifunctional material. The ZnO nano materials, such as nanowires, nanorods, nanobands and nanorings, attract intense worldwide attention for their unique optical, semiconducting and piezoelectric properties. At present, Chinese scientists in this filed mainly focus their research on material growth and diode development.
A research group headed by Prof. ZHANG Haiying from IME came up with a unique "bottom-up" method for designing and developing nano devices. Through the regular contact photolithography technology, they employed ZnO nanorods as the channel material and fabricated a metal-oxide-semiconductor FET by combining gate oxide and back gate metal, which displayed satisfying results.
Next, Prof. Zhang and her colleagues will further advance the technology in order to develop nanowires with an even smaller diameter and improve the performance of the devices, raising solutions to key problems in practical use.

The facility is essentially a laboratory with thick, yellow, plexiglass walls dividing it into a dry and a wet side. The room provides a dust-free environment for scientists in white, Gore-tex suits to make nano-sized devices for use in defense and other industries and medicine.
"Nano" means one billionth part of a specified unit. A nanometer, for example, is one billionth of a meter. In nanobionics, scientists make tiny circuits and outfit them with biological features, said chemistry Professor Fotios Papadimitrakopoulos, director of Nanobionics Fabrication Facility.
For example, UConn scientists are working on a device that could help doctors diagnose prostate cancer within 10 minutes, he said. They are also trying to develop an artificial retina that could restore vision for people who have lost it.
"We are very happy to have this facility because it will give us basically a new direction to expand our research in the nanobionics arena and make devices that will impact peoples' quality of life," Papadimitrakopoulos said.
The $2 million room in the Gant Science Complex also will give UConn undergraduates a chance to do research in the field and train graduate students in nanotechnology skills crucial for the state's work force competitiveness. The state is seeing a decline in high-tech companies, and officials say they hope nanotechnology will inject new life in Connecticut's economic future.
The room, which was partly financed through a U.S. Army Center grant, will supplement the more than $20 million in research technology at UConn's Institute of Materials Science. These include high-power electron microscopes, atomic force microscopes and luminescence and Raman spectrometers.
UConn has invested more than $7 million in nanotechnology research facilities and faculty as part of its revised academic plan. Nearly 80 faculty members, including faculty at the UConn Health Center, are actively engaged in nanotechnology research.

Heidelberg Instruments announced the sale of a uPG101 table top maskless laser patterning system to the MacDiarmid Institute of the University of Canterbury, New Zealand.
The µPG101 is an extremely economical and easy to use Micro Pattern Generator for direct write applications as well as low volume mask making. It is also perfectly suitable for rapid prototyping of 2D and 3D microstructures on substrates up to 4 inches by 4 inches, and is capable of exposing high resolution features with an address grid of 100nm.
"The µPG101 system installed at the University of Canterbury will be used to support the research of New Zealand's MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology (macdiarmid.ac.nz). It is an ideal mask-making and device-prototyping tool to support the wide range of research being carried out, from exploring new applications for microfluidic systems, to developing optoelectronic and spintronic devices from a range of different organic and inorganic materials," states Professor Richard Blaikie, Deputy Director at the MacDiarmid Institute.
The µPG101 maskless lithography system offers a very small footprint of 60cm by 60cm. It presents a highly flexible, out of the box tool which is capable of layer to layer alignment through its integrated camera system. Applications include MEMS, BioMEMS, Integrated Optics, Micro Fluidics, µTAS, or similar areas requiring microstructures.
About Heidelberg Instruments, GmbH: With an installation base of more than 300 systems in over 30 countries, Heidelberg Instruments is a world leader in production of high precision maskless lithography systems. These systems are used for direct writing and photomask production by some of the most prestigious universities and industry leaders in the areas of MEMS, BioMEMS, Nano Technology, ASICS, TFT, Plasma Displays, Micro Optics, and many other related applications.

In the future, such devices could have a multitude of potential medical applications, including being used as sensors to sniff out tumor cells or determine when to turn modified genes on or off during cancer therapy.
A synthetic RNA device is a biological device that uses engineered modular components made of RNA nucleotides to perform a specific function--for instance, to detect and respond to biochemical signals inside a cell or in its immediate environment.
Created by Caltech's Christina Smolke, assistant professor of chemical engineering, and Maung Nyan Win, postdoctoral scholar in chemical engineering, the device is made up of modules comprising the RNA-based biological equivalents of engineering's sensors, actuators, and information transmitters. These individual components can be combined in a variety of different ways to create a device that can both detect and respond to what could conceivably be an almost infinite number of environmental and cellular signals.
This modular device processes these inputs in a manner almost identical to the logic gates used in computing; it can perform AND, NOR, NAND, and OR computations, and can perform signal filtering and signal gain operations. Smolke and Win's creation is the first RNA device that can handle more than one incoming piece of biological information. "There's been a lot of work done in single-input devices," notes Smolke. "But this is the first demonstration that a multi-input RNA device is possible."
The modular--or plug-and-play--nature of the device's design also means that it can be easily modified to suit almost any need. "Scientists won't have to redesign their system every time they want the RNA device to take on a new function," Smolke explains. "This modular framework allows you to quickly put a device together, then just as easily swap out the components for other ones and get a completely different kind of computation. We could generate huge libraries of well-defined sensors and assemble many different tailored devices from such component libraries."
Although the work in the Science paper was done in yeast cells, Smolke says they have already shown that they can translate to mammalian cells as well. This makes it possible to consider using these devices in a wide variety of medical applications.
For instance, ongoing work in Smolke's laboratory is looking at the packaging of these RNA devices--configured with the appropriate sensor modules--in human T cells. The synthetic device would literally be placed within the cell to detect certain signals--say, one or more particular biochemical markers that are given off by tumor cells. If those biomarkers were present, the RNA device would signal the T cell to spring into action against the putative tumor cell.
Similarly, an RNA device could be bundled alongside a modified gene as part of a targeted gene therapy package. One of the problems gene therapy faces today is its lack of specificity--it's hard to make sure a modified gene meant to fix a problem in the liver reaches or is inserted in only liver cells. But an RNA device, Smolke says, could be customized to detect the unique biomarkers of a liver cell--or, better yet, of a diseased liver cell--and only then give the modified gene the go-ahead to do its stuff.

Text of report in English by Iranian official government news agency IRNA website
Tehran, 22 October: Second International Congress on Nanotechnology titled ICNN2008 will be held in Tabriz University from 28-30 October.
Announcing this, head of Iran's Nanotechnology Association Mojtaba Shari'ati-Niasar told IRNA on Wednesday [22 October] that the entity will organize the second edition of the congress following successful holding of the first round in Tehran University.
The event is to feature the latest findings in the field by the scientists from 17 countries including Denmark, Spain, the US, Russia, Australia, Malaysia, South Korea, Canada, China, Azerbaijan Republic, Italy, Britain, Armenia, Czech republic, Slovakia, India, Germany, France and Iran.
He further said that more than 1,200 articles have been submitted to the secretariat of the event of which 600 were selected for presentation.
The number of entries has increased by more than 500 per cent compared to the figure for the previous round of the congress.
Presidential adviser for nanotechnology affairs Sadeq Vaezzadeh is scheduled to take part in the inaugural ceremony of the congress.
An exhibition featuring findings and capabilities of dozens of companies and research centres will be held on the sidelines of the congress, Shari'ati said.
Some 1,000 elites, instructors, students, researchers and industrialists are expected to take part in the event.
Iran's Nanotechnology Association was founded in cooperation with a number of faculty members of the universities and research centres nationwide in 2002.

An artificial connection between nerve cells in the brain and muscles has been shown to restore voluntary movement to paralyzed limbs. This finding was reported today in the journal Nature.
Scientists would like to discover how to re-route brain signals to bypass damaged nerves to treat spinal cord injuries. A spinal cord injury impairs nerve pathways, but spares muscles and brain tissue.
Unlike previous experiments to activate paralyzed muscles through pre-determined electrical stimulation, or to tap brain activity to operate robotic arms or computer cursers, in this study muscles were directly stimulated using the activity of neurons in the motor cortex, the part of the brain that normally controls limb movement.
The study was proof of concept: it showed that the idea could work. What was exciting about this direct stimulation, said Dr. Eberhard Fetz, University of Washington professor of physiology & biophysics and a researcher at the Washington National Primate Research Center at the UW, is that it avoids the complex process of decoding neural signals to control a computer or robotic device. Direct stimulation of muscles may allow individuals to have more natural control of movement through their own volition. The experiments were performed with laboratory instrumentation, but the researchers also built a portable electronics device from off-the-shelf components to convert signals from the motor cortex neuron cells into stimuli. The device would fit in a matchbox and runs on AA batteries and would allow long-term practice with the artificial connection.
The research was conducted at the Washington National Primate Center and supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Neurology Institute. Monkeys learned to use direct, artificial stimulation from arbitrarily chosen motor cortex cells, delivered to multiple muscles, to flex and extend their wrist to play a video game. Their wrist nerves had been temporarily numbed with a local anesthetic like lidocaine, which paralyzed the muscles. Despite the nerve block, the monkeys were able to control the contraction strength of their wrist muscles to match a set of targets on a computer screen. Controlling the degree of muscle contraction is what allows us to pick up an egg without breaking the shell or to grab tightly to a handrail to avoid a fall.
The monkeys got better at the video game with practice as they learned to control the neurons that triggered muscle stimulation. This method of learning to control a computer cursor is comparable to biofeedback training to moderate hand temperature or heart rate.
The scientists also found that neurons unrelated to wrist movement could provide signals to move wrist muscles. Moreover, muscles that flex and extend the wrist could be activated separately from different neurons.
"Nearly every motor cortex neuron we tested in the brain could be used to control the stimulation of the wrist muscles," said Dr. Chet Moritz, UW senior fellow in physiology and biophysics and lead author on the study, which also included UW researcher Steve Perlmutter. In particular, even brain cells initially unrelated to movement could be controlled and used to stimulate muscles.
"With biofeedback the brain can rapidly learn to control new cells to generate movement," Fetz noted. Because of this, perhaps someday researchers may help stroke patients by using stimulation from undamaged brain areas to restore function lost from damage in other areas of the brain.
The researchers think about a decade more of research is necessary before direct stimulation of muscles from brain cells can be applied in patients. The current study was limited by the temporary nature of the nerve block and the small range of neurons and muscles studied. Further development of a similar device might be useful in allowing severely paralyzed individuals to turn dials, press buttons, or hold a coffee cup.
To improve the practicality of this approach to treating paralysis with artificial nerve connections, scientists would need to increase the number of control signals from the brain to manage more muscle groups. At present researchers are hoping to scale up the device to a greater number of neurons. They might also try to find ways to control coordinated patterns of muscle activity by stimulating the spinal cord. Among other aspects that would need to be addressed before neural control of nerve or spinal stimulation becomes applicable and acceptable for patient testing are the size of the device, which needs more miniaturization, the wiring, and the power source.
"We could look into the possibilities of other power sources such as radiofrequency transmission," said Fetz. The miniaturization problem is also being addressed: scientists in UW Biology and Electrical Engineering Departments have already created chips small enough to place on a large insect.
Researchers would also have to determine the best placement for the recording electrodes. Using signals recorded from outside the skull would be less invasive but would provide less information, whereas neural signals recorded from electrodes inside the brain provide more information, but such recording is limited by eventual loss of signal due to cells growing on the electrodes.
Overall, the scientists observed, showing that brain nerve cells unrelated to movement can be recruited into movement control is another example of the striking plasticity of the brain.
"The brain can modify the activity of its cells beyond the conventional ways of characterizing their activity," they said. "We still don't know how flexible the brain is in reassigning cells to different functions."