It has always been difficult to use implantable neuroprostheses because the neural tissue being soft and prostheses being hard.
Scientists from institutes like the following have come with a solution. Institutes includes Bertarelli Foundation Chair in Neuroprosthetic Technology, Laboratory for Soft Bioelectronic Interfaces, Centre for Neuroprosthetics, Institute of Microengineering and Institute of Bioengineering, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, International Paraplegic Foundation Chair in Spinal Cord Repair, Centre for Neuroprosthetics and Brain Mind Institute, EPFL, Switzerland, Pavlov Institute of Physiology, St. Petersburg, Russia, Translational Neural Engineering Laboratory, Center for Neuroprosthetics and Institute of Bioengineering, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Kavli Institute for Bionano Science and Technology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA, Laboratory for Biosensors and Bioelectronics, Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University and ETH Zurich, Switzerland and The BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa 56025, Italy.
They designed soft neural implants with shape and elasticity of dura mater which is a hard but elastic covering of the brain and spinal cord. It is called e-dura which embeds interconnects, electrodes, and chemotrodes that sustain millions of mechanical stretch cycles, electrical stimulation pulses, and chemical injections. The soft implants extracted cortical states in freely behaving animals for brain-machine interface and delivered electrochemical spinal neuromodulation that restored locomotion after paralyzing spinal cord injury.
