Flexible implant restores rats’ ability to walk
JAN 09, 2015
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.028552
MIT Technology Review : Gregoire Courtine of the École Polytechnique Fédérale in Lausanne, Switzerland, and his colleagues had previously shown that implants can let rats walk again, but the wires they used caused tissue damage over time as the rats moved. To avoid that problem, they have now developed flexible implants that stretch and bend along with the recipient’s spinal cord. The new implant wraps around the spinal cord and provides electrical signals as well as chemicals that help the rat’s body process the signals. After two months, the subjects suffered significantly less tissue damage than those with the rigid implant.
© 2015 American Institute of Physics
