Clinical trials for tumor removal using a postage stamp-sized chip that can distinguish between brain cells and cancer cells are underway.
The British Guardian recently reported that a surgical method to remove brain tumors using a postage stamp-sized chip made of graphene, which is 200 times stronger than steel but only one atom thick, is nearing clinical trials. This brain chip can accurately detect cancer cells through the difference in electrical emissions compared to that of healthy nervous tissue and cancer cells.
Graphene is a carbon allotrope with a two-dimensional flat crystal structure in the shape of a hexagonal honeycomb, invented 20 years ago in 2004 by André Konstantin Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, Russian professors at the University of Manchester, England. Graphite is a carbon allotrope. Diamond, fullerene, etc. The two scientists won the 2010 Nobel Prize for Physics for this invention.
Graphene conducts electricity more than 100 times better than copper, and can move electrons more than 100 times faster than single crystal silicon, a semiconductor. Its strength is more than 200 times stronger than steel, its thermal conductivity is more than twice that of diamond, and its elasticity is excellent, so it does not lose its electrical properties even when stretched or bent.
Scientists have been taking advantage of graphene’s remarkable conductivity to develop new electrical and magnetic sensors and other devices. However, the brain chip currently being tested at the Royal Salford Hospital in England is considered a first achievement in the medical field. Professor Costas Costarelos (nanomedicine) at the University of Manchester, UK, a member of the research team, said, “This is the world’s first clinical trial with a graphene-based medical device.”
A ‘brain-computer interface (BCI)’ device using graphene was designed and manufactured by an international research team to revolutionize the monitoring of electrical stimulation of brain cells using previously undetectable frequencies. “The first use will be to distinguish between cancer cells and healthy cells so that brain tumor surgery can be performed in a very precise manner,” said Professor Costarelos.
In the UK, more than 12,700 people are diagnosed with a brain tumor every year and more than 5,000 people die from brain tumors every year. In Korea, 2,000 to 4,000 new cases occur every year, and the current number of patients is known to be approximately 20,000.
Brain cells interact by exchanging electrical impulses. Our thoughts, our actions. It is a process that becomes the basis for perception of the world. To understand this, detection of electrical signals emitted from the brain is essential. Current technology cannot detect very low and very high frequency signals. Only electrical signals in the middle range of frequencies can be detected.
However, BCI devices using graphene can “pinpoint a wide range of electrical signals in the brain, including very high and very low frequencies,” Professor Costarelos explained. Part of the patient’s skull is removed and a tiny, wafer-thick chip with thousands of electrical contacts is placed on top of the brain. The transmitter sends electrical signals to stimulate cells in the brain, and a small receiver picks up the response.
Professor Costarelos explained, “Unlike host nerve cells, cancer cells do not respond to electrical stimulation emitted by the chip.” He said, “Through the BCI device, the surgical team can identify nerve cells that are very close to cancer cells,” and “depending on the signals from the graphene chip, diseased cells can be removed more accurately and reliably.”
The ability of BCI chips to detect ultra-high and extremely low-frequency signals from brain cells is important for other reasons as well. In the case of stroke and epileptic seizures, it is known that cells in the affected area of the brain send very low frequency signals. Graphene chip technology allows us to explore what happens immediately after these events occur. Professor Costarelos said: “This technology, which leverages the amazing properties of graphene, could direct surgical interventions in the brain and enable fundamental new understanding of how cells in the brain function and interact in disease states.” said.
Source: kormedi.com