Platform using graphene, aimed for DBS in Parkinson's, aids surgery

02 Oct 2024, 13:30 by Esteban Dominguez Cerezo · Parkinson's News Today

A neural platform based on graphene, a strong but extremely thin carbon sheet that Inbrain Neuroelectronics is developing for a surgical treatment of Parkinson’s disease, was used for a first time on a patient undergoing brain tumor surgery.

The platform’s graphene-based brain-computer interface (BCI) technology demonstrated an ability to differentiate between healthy and cancerous brain tissue with high precision, Inbrain reported in a company press release.

“The world’s first human application of a graphene-based BCI highlights the transformative impact of graphene-based neural technologies in medicine,” said Carolina Aguilar, the company’s CEO and a co-founder.

The technology allowed surgeons to capture brain activity with ‘fidelity’

Graphene, which consists of a single layer of carbon atoms, is the thinnest material currently known to science and lightweight, but “stronger than steel and possesses a unique combination of electronic and mechanical properties that make it ideal for neurotechnology innovation,” the release states. It also is reported to be highly flexible, and efficient at conducting electricity and heat.

Part of a clinical investigation study primarily funded by the European Commission’s Graphene Flagship project and sponsored by the University of Manchester — where stable graphene was first isolated in 2004 — the surgery was conducted at Salford Royal Hospital in Manchester.

“We are capturing brain activity in areas where traditional metals and materials struggle with signal fidelity. Graphene provides ultra-high density for sensing and stimulating, which is critical to conduct high precision resections while preserving the patient’s functional capacities, such as movement, language or cognition,” said David Coope, MD, the neurosurgeon who performed the procedure.

Inbrain’s platform — called the Intelligent Network Decoding & Modulation platform — has received breakthrough device designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its potential to provide more effective deep brain stimulation (DBS) as an add-on Parkinson’s treatment.

DBS, a surgical treatment for patients not responding adequately to other Parkinson’s therapies, involves delivering electrical signals directly into the brain by a device, helping to ease the disease’s motor symptoms.

Inbrain’s modulation system uses graphene for neural implants capable of delivering DBS.

The technology will be tested in a clinical study involving eight to 10 patients, aiming to evaluate graphene’s safety when in direct contact with brain tissue and to demonstrate its “superiority over other materials in decoding brain functionality in both awake and asleep states,” said Kostas Kostarelos, PhD, a professor of nanomedicine at the University of Manchester and a company co-founder.

Inbrain’s BCI integrates artificial intelligence — algorithms trained via collected data — to decode the high-resolution brain signals captured, making real-time adjustments possible. Pairing graphene with artificial intelligence “has allowed Inbrain to pioneer a new generation of minimally invasive BCI therapeutics designed for the personalized treatment of neurological disorders,” said Jose A. Garrido, PhD, Inbrain’s chief scientific officer and a company co-founder.

In addition to Parkinson’s, the company expects its graphene-based BCI platform to help in treating epilepsy and with rehabilitation after a stroke, as well as for use in precision surgeries in diseases like cancer.