A silicon nanochip can reprogram tissue in a living body

A non-invasive nanochip device is capable of reprogramming tissue function with a technology called tissue nanotransfection.

The device is a direct evolution of another nanochip tested 4 years ago from Ohio State University. What does its technology consist of? Quite simply, this nanochip applies a (harmless) electrical spark to deliver specific genes to tissues in a split second. In lab tests, he was able to convert skin tissue into blood vessels to repair a badly injured leg.

Tissue nanotransfection is currently being used experimentally to reprogram tissues and provide different types of therapies. An example above all: repairing the brain damage caused by a stroke, or preventing (or even reversing) the damage to the nervous system caused by diabetes.

Regenerative medicine, the next frontier

A while has passed from the first discovery to the first adoption, as mentioned. This new phase, however, is the most important. It is the one that will lead these tissue nanotransfection nanochips to mass diffusion. He is sure of it Chandan sen, director of the Indiana Center for Regenerative Medicine and Engineering, lead author of this new publication.

If yesterday we tested the function of these devices, Sen points out, today we are in the phase in which the knowledge on how to manufacture them is transmitted to everyone. And in fact the published report contains technical details on the production.

Change the function of living parts of the body

It is useless to try to hypothesize all the possible applications of a nanochip and such technology. I remember something similar (albeit much more advanced) only in the old Star Trek series. You know those scenes in which the doctor on duty healed a person by touching him with a device that emitted pulses? There.

This manufacturing information will lead to further development of the chip, and will someday be used clinically in many contexts around the world. Thanks to this publication, an industry expert will be able to fabricate a nanochip in five or six days.

Sen said he hopes to get the approval of the FDA for the nanochip within one year. Once obtained, the device can be used for clinical research on people, including patients in hospitals, health centers and emergency rooms.