Silk implant could aid spinal injuries, epilepsy

Reuters
updated 12:45 p.m. MT, Sun., April 18, 2010

WASHINGTON - A brain implant made partly of silk can melt onto the surface of the brain, providing an "intimate" connection for recording signals, researchers reported on Sunday.

Tests of their device showed the thin, flexible electrodes recorded signals from a cat's brain more accurately than thicker, stiff devices.

Such devices might help people with epilepsy, spinal cord injuries and even help operate artificial arms and legs, the researchers report in the journal Nature Materials.

John Rogers of the University of Illinois, Urbana and colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania and Tufts University in Boston made the electrode arrays using protein from silk and thin metal electrodes.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36629557/ns/technology_and_science-innovation/