Nanowires record notifications from neurons

The new nanowire technology could eventually act as a platform to screen drugs for neurological diseases and help researchers better understand how single cells communicate in large neuronal networks.

"We're developing tools that will allow us to dig deeper into the science of how the brain works," said lead investigator Shadi Dayeh, an electrical engineering professor at the University of California San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering.

"We envision that this nanowire technology could be used on stem-cell-derived brain models to identify the most effective drugs for neurological diseases," said Anne Bang, director of cell biology at the Conrad Prebys Center for Chemical Genomics at the Sanford Burnham Medical Research Institute.

According to UC San Diego, researchers can uncover details about a neuron's health, activity and response to drugs by measuring ion channel currents and changes in its intracellular potential, which is due to the difference in ion concentration between the inside and outside of the cell. The measurement technique is sensitive to small potential changes and provides readings with high signal-to-noise ratios. However, this method can break the cell membrane and destroy the cell. It is also limited to analysing one cell at a time, making it impractical for studying large networks of neurons, which are how they are naturally arranged in the body.