(ORDO NEWS) — Swedish scientists from Linköping, Leeds and Gothenburg universities have successfully grown electrodes inside living beings.
The results of the study, will help develop fully integrated electronic circuits in living organisms. Conventional bioelectronics uses rigid electrodes that are fundamentally incompatible with living systems.
Since living tissue grows and changes, it is necessary to use a material that is soft enough to seamlessly contact living tissue, but strong enough to be injected into the body.
To eliminate this incompatibility, the scientists developed a method to dynamically create unsupported soft conductive materials in a biological environment.
In the experiment, the researchers demonstrated the formation of electrodes in vivo (in a living organism) in zebrafish and leeches using molecules called endogenous metabolites.
These include an oxidase enzyme for generating hydrogen peroxide, a peroxidase for catalyzing oxidative polymerization, a water-soluble conjugated monomer, a polyelectrolyte for covalent crosslinking, and a surfactant for stabilization.
These biochemicals trigger the enzymatic polymerization reactions of the organic precursors contained in the gel, which is injected into the body.
As a result, polymer chains are formed that are capable of conducting electric current. The injected gel did not harm the animals, and the emerging electrodes were well received by the tissue and the immune system.
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