MIT finally admitting that they can use nano-scale wireless devices to remotely program areas of the brain.
MIT researchers created microscopic wireless electronic devices that travel through blood and implant in target brain regions, where they provide electrical stimulation.
"The team has been working on circulatronics for more than six years. The electronic devices, each about one-billionth the length of a grain of rice, are composed of organic semiconducting polymer layers sandwiched between metallic layers to create an electronic heterostructure.
They are fabricated using CMOS-compatible processes in the MIT.nano facilities, and then integrated with living cells to create cell-electronics hybrids. To do this, the researchers lift the devices off the silicon wafer on which they are fabricated, so they are free-floating in a solution."
“The electronics worked perfectly when they were attached to the substrate, but when we originally lifted them off, they didn’t work anymore. Solving that challenge took us more than a year,” Sarkar says.
Key to their operation is the high wireless power conversion efficiency of the tiny electronics. This enables the devices to work deep inside the brain and still harness enough energy for neuromodulation.
The researchers use a chemical reaction to bond the electronic devices to cells. In the new study, they fused the electronics with a type of immune cell called monocytes, which target areas of inflammation in the body. They also applied a fluorescent dye, allowing them to trace the devices as they crossed the intact blood-brain barrier and self-implanted in the target brain region.
While they explored brain inflammation in this study, the researchers hope to use different cell types and engineer the cells to target specific regions of the brain.
“Our cell-electronics hybrid fuses the versatility of electronics with the biological transport and biochemical sensing prowess of living cells,” Sarkar says. “The living cells camouflage the electronics so that they aren’t attacked by the body’s immune system and they can travel seamlessly through the bloodstream. This also enables them to squeeze through the intact blood-brain barrier without the need to invasively open it.”
https://news.mit.edu/2025/new-....therapeutic-brain-im
