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‘Bioelectronics’ & brain disease


Swedish researchers have grown electrodes in the tissue of zebrafish and leeches, which could lead to mimicking technologies that can fully integrate into living organisms.


The study, by Linköping University, the University of Gothenburg and Lund University, developed a gel that when injected into zebrafish and medicinal leeches, could grow in their tissues and conduct electricity – contact with natural substances in the body triggers the gel to change its structure and become conductive.


These so-called ‘bioelectrodes’ formed in the brains, heart and tails of zebrafish, and nervous system tissues of the leeches, without harming the animals.


Creating an interface between electronics and biology could help us to understand biological functions and brain diseases more fully.


Professor Roger Olsson, at Lund, said: “The zebrafish is an excellent model for the study of organic electrodes in brains.”


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