EU-funded robot uses magnets to steer graphene implants into the brain
Barcelona’s INBRAIN Neuroelectronics led the clinical work on the €3.93m MINIGRAPH project. Parkinson’s disease is the first target, and the tests so far were in the lab and in animals.
How the robot works
Nanoflex Robotics and ETH Zurich built the implantation system, which relies on remote magnetic navigation. A magnetic carrier delivers the thin probes, and the robot guides them under X-ray imaging. It can follow straight or curved paths to reach both the surface of the brain and deeper areas.
INBRAIN stated the team tested the procedure in the lab and in a large animal model. The company claimed it could make implanting brain-computer interfaces (BCI) faster and more repeatable.
“The MINIGRAPH project demonstrated the feasibility and potential to use electromagnetic robotics to control the delivery of next-generation BCI not only through straight but also curved trajectories deep into the brain with submillimeter accuracy,” said Matt Curran, co-founder and chief executive of Nanoflex Robotics.
Graphene instead of metal
Most brain electrodes today are made of metal. INBRAIN creates thin-film electrodes from graphene, a sheet of carbon one atom thick. Accelerated ageing tests produced data supporting more than 10 years of projected stability, the company said. The group also conducted toxicity and biocompatibility studies on the material.
The consortium built compact electronics that can decode signals from hundreds of points in the brain. It combined the probes, electronics, and software into one implant prototype, which it tested in a translational animal model.
“As BCI technologies move toward patients, making them available to more people will depend not only on our ability to manufacture advanced devices but also on developing precise and reproducible ways to implant them,” stated Jose A. Garrido, co-founder and chief scientific officer of INBRAIN.
Funding and Future
The European Innovation Council funded MINIGRAPH through Horizon Europe. The EU contribution was €3.93m over 45 months from October 2022, according to the project’s website. Switzerland funded ETH Zurich’s part.
The Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2) coordinated the group. Imec, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Leiden University Medical Center, and Palacký University Olomouc also took part.
The tests so far were in the lab and in animals. In April, INBRAIN announced it had finished enrolling patients in a separate first-in-human study of its graphene interfaces for brain decoding and mapping.
In the US, Paradromics implanted its brain chip in its first patient in June. China approved its first commercial brain implant this summer. Science Corp is bringing a retina implant to Europe.