Bioelectronics Organic
bioelectronics is the application of organic electronic material to the field of bioelectronics. Organic materials (i.e. containing carbon) show great promise when it comes to interfacing with biological systems. Current applications focus around
neuroscience and infection. Conducting polymer coatings, an organic electronic material, shows massive improvement in the technology of materials. It was the most sophisticated form of electrical stimulation. It improved the impedance of electrodes in electrical stimulation, resulting in better recordings and reducing "harmful electrochemical side reactions." Organic Electrochemical Transistors (OECT) were invented in 1984 by Mark Wrighton and colleagues, which had the ability to transportions. This improved signal-to-noise ratio and gives for low measured impedance. The Organic Electronic Ion Pump (OEIP), a device that could be used to target specific body parts and organs to adhere medicine, was created by Magnuss Berggren.As one of the few materials well established in CMOS technology, titanium nitride (TiN) turned out as exceptionally stable and well suited for electrode applications in medical implants.Bioelectronics is used to help improve the lives of people with disabilities and diseases. For example, the glucose monitor is a portable device that allows diabetic patients to control and measure their blood sugar levels. Electrical stimulation used to treat patients with epilepsy, chronic pain, Parkinson's, deafness, Essential
Tremor and blindness. Magnuss Berggren and colleagues created a variation of his OEIP, the first bioelectronic implant device that was used in a living, free animal for therapeutic reasons. It transmitted electric currents into GABA, an acid. A lack of GABA in the body is a
factor in chronic pain. GABA would then be dispersed properly to the damaged nerves, acting as a painkiller. Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS) is used to activate the Cholinergic Anti-inflammatory Pathway (CAP) in the Vagus Nerve, ending in reduced inflammation in patients with diseases like arthritis. Since patients with
depression and
epilepsy are more vulnerable to having a closed CAP, VNS can aid them as well.. At the same time, not all the systems that have electronics used to help improving the lives of people are necessarily bioelectronic devices, but only those which involve an intimate and directly interface of electronics and biological systems .The improvement of standards and tools to monitor the state of
cells at subcellular resolutions is lacking funding and employment. This is a problem because advances in other fields of science are beginning to analyze large cell populations, increasing the need for a device that can monitor
cells at such a level of sight.
Cells cannot be used in many ways other than their main purpose, like detecting harmful substances. Merging this science with forms of
nanotechnology could result in incredibly accurate detection methods.
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