Glucose for Paralysis?

A fuel cell that runs on glucose could drive brain implants to help paralyzed individuals move arms and legs.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) engineers have developed a fuel cell that runs on the same sugar that powers human cells: glucose. This could be used to drive future brain implants, helping paralyzed individuals move their arms and legs again.

Researchers fabricated the fuel cell on a silicon chip, allowing it to be integrated with other circuits that would be needed for a brain implant. 

The idea of a glucose fuel cell is not new. In the 1970s, scientists powered a pacemaker with a glucose fuel cell. However, the idea was abandoned in favor of lithium-ion batteries, which could provide significantly more power. In addition, the glucose fuel cells used enzymes that proved impractical for long-term implantation in the body, since they eventually stopped functioning efficiently.

The new twist to the MIT fuel cell is that it is made from silicon, using the same technology as in semiconductor electronic chips. It has no biological components. So far, it can generate hundreds of microwatts — enough to power an ultra-low-power and clinically useful neural implant.

According to Benjamin Rapoport, first author on the new MIT study, it will be a few more years before people with spinal-cord injury receive such implantable systems as part of standard medical care.

“But those are the sorts of devices you could envision powering from a glucose-based fuel cell,” he says.

Researchers at Brown University, Massachusetts General Hospital, and other institutions recently demonstrated that paralyzed individuals can use a brain-machine interface to move a robotic arm. However, those implants must be plugged into a wall outlet.

For more information, visit mit.edu.

 

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