Scientists develop bio-synthetic material that could allow human brain to 'merge' with AI

In a breakthrough development bridging the gap between artificial intelligence (AI) and the human tissues, scientists have discovered a bio-synthetic material that can be used to 'merge' AI with the human brain.

Even though ‘Cyborgs’ that are part human and part robotic have mostly been seen as fictional characters, research presented at the American Chemical Society Fall 2020 virtual expo marked a major step forward to integrate electronics with the body. 

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Connecting any wires to human tissues has been the biggest challenge for the scientists as traditional materials like gold, silicon, and steel cause scarring that further bar the process. David Martin, PhD at the University of Delaware, who led the study has explained that when the researchers dug deeper to find a suitable material, they found a chemically stable example that was on sale as an antistatic coating for electronic displays. 

“We started looking at organic electronic materials like conjugated polymers that were being used in non-biological devices,” says Martin, who is at the University of Delaware. “We found a chemically stable example that was sold commercially as an antistatic coating for electronic displays.” 

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'PEDOT' film

On further research, it was found out that the same material had the polymer with the required properties for integrating hardware and human tissue. The polymers were conjugated along with being electrically and ionically active.

These ions provide researchers with the charge essential to move around during operation. Since the discovery of the unique bio-synthetic material, Martin and has been determined to specialise the polymer and came up with ‘PEDOT film’. 

PEDOT constitutes of carboxylic acid, aldehyde or maleimide substituent to the ethylenedioxythiophene (EDOT) monomer that has provided the researchers with the versatility to create other polymers to perform a range of functions.

Performing click chemistry, Martin came up with PEDOT film with an antibody for a vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) attached. VEGF basically stimulates the growth of blood vessels after injury, and tumours ‘hijack’ the protein to increase their blood supply. 

Moreover, the polymer that researchers developed could act as a sensor to detect overexpression of VEGF and thus early stages of the disease, among other several potential applications. They have even developed a polymer with dopamine that play a role in addictive behaviours of an individual. Martin noted that ‘these biological-synthetic hybrid materials might someday be useful in merging artificial intelligence with the human brain.’

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