Implantable Brain Sensor Dissolves Over Time

A new implantable sensor that can track electrical activity in the brain for a few days to several weeks and then dissolve is a promising step toward new medical devices.

Short-term biosensors could be useful during healing from a traumatic brain injury, for example, or in the lead-up to surgery for seizure disorders, says John Rogers, a professor of materials science and engineering at the Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. But surgically inserting and later removing a sensor is risky for patients. So instead, Rogers and his colleagues are developing bio­resorbable electronics that will break down and be excreted or metabolized by the body’s natural processes after they are no longer needed.

“This work represents the first full embodiment of that vision, in the sense that we now have full, active electronic platforms that interface with the brain,” Rogers says.

The devices are designed to sit inside the skull, atop the cortex, recording electrical impulses. In the case of a patient with epilepsy, such arrays could detect abnormal neural firing patterns that trigger seizures, allowing surgeons to excise the...