Wayne State researcher receives NSF award to develop neural implants

EurekAlert, Public release date: 3-Aug-2011

Devices will help treat Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and more

Mark Ming-Cheng Cheng, Ph.D., assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Wayne State University, is out to change that. He recently received a five-year, $475,000 Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) grant from the National Science Foundation to study the potential of graphene, a novel carbon material, in the development of a reliable, high-performance, long-term implantable electrode system to improve quality of life using nanotechnology. Cheng is collaborating with colleagues in the School of Medicine, in biomedical engineering, and in WSU's Smart Sensors and Integrated Microsystems and Nano Incubator programs.

Neural disorders and diseases result when parts of the brain don't interact properly or stop interacting altogether. Cheng said that over the past 50 years, electrodes used to stimulate connections between those parts typically stop working after a few weeks because scar tissue forms around the electrode, and the materials that comprise the electrode can't carry enough charge through the scar tissue.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releas...-wsr080311.php