Miniature, Nanotech Implants May Treat Epilepsy and Glaucoma

Filed in archive Investigational , Studies , Treatment on August 11, 2007

New miniature devices for brain implant to predict and prevent epileptic seizures and a nanotech sensor for eye implant for the treatment of glaucoma have been developed by a research team at Purdue University.

• a tiny transmitter three times the width of a human hair to be implanted below the scalp to detect the signs of an epileptic seizure before it occurs - the system will record neural signals relayed by electrodes in various points in the brain.


• a sensor to be implanted in the eye to monitor glaucoma by measuring pressure in the eye's interior

Sounds bionic right? This isn't fiction though, but real.

Findings will be presented in details in three research papers at the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society's Sciences and Technologies for Health conference from Aug. 23-26 in Lyon, France.

Find more details on this medical technology at Purdue University.

[In Photo: Pedro Irazoqui, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Purdue, uses a "radio frequency probe station" to test tiny circuits in a new miniature device designed to be implanted in the brain to predict epileptic seizures; Credit: Purdue News Service photo by David Umberger]