Swedish scientists create gel that allows electrodes to grow in living organism

Discovery of Swedish scientists may lead to a breakthrough in the field of transplantation of inanimate matter into living organisms and lead to a truly complete integration of machine and human.

According to Newatlas.com, the new technology developed by scientists allows the creation of a network of electrodes directly in cells and living tissues using a biological building material.

Scientists from Linkoping, Lund and Gothenburg Universities in the course of many years of research managed to create gel containing special enzymes with "assembly molecules". Introducing this gel into living tissues triggers the reactions necessary for the formation of conducting electrodes in living organisms. No external influence or gene modification is required, and this is the first such successful experiment in the history of research.

During the experiments, scientists injected the miracle gel into danio fish and medical leeches. Since then, electrodes have been found in the brains of fish, in the heart and tail fins, and around the nerve tissue of leeches. Neither the fish nor the leeches were harmed by the gel or after the synthesis of the electrodes.

“By making smart changes to the chemistry, we were able to develop electrodes that were accepted by the brain tissue and immune system. The zebrafish is an excellent model for the study of organic electrodes in brains,” explained Roger Olsson, professor at the Medical Faculty, Lund University.

The electronic circuitry is created almost naturally in the body and has no harmful effects on the body. “For several decades, we have tried to create electronics that mimic biology," said Magnus Berggren, professor at LOE. "Now we let biology create the electronics for us."

Xenofon Strakosas, a researcher at Linkoping University's Laboratory for Organic Electronics (LOE), said contact with body materials changes the structure of the gel and makes it electrically conductive, which was not the case before the injection. "Depending on the tissue, we can also adjust the composition of the gel to get the electrical process going," he assured.

The journal notes that the development presented could form the basis for approaches in future fundamental changes to integrating electronic components in animals and humans. From a medical point of view, the discovery is promising for the treatment of severe neurological diseases. We are talking about both stimulation of affected tissues and their replacement with computer platforms.

The study was published in the scientific journal Science.