Is an implantable electronic device the future of medicine? – Gordon Wallace
Researchers in Australia have developed an implantable thread – a sutrode – that could cure disease by stimulating nerve fibres.
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Show Notes
Materials scientist Gordon Wallace is the director of ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science at the University of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia. He is developing the ‘sutrode’, a medical device made from graphene that combines the electrical properties of an electrode with the mechanical properties of a suture.
The device is wrapped around damaged or malfunctioning nerve bundles and used to stimulate them and return their regular function. Though still in its early stages, the technology may one day be used to treat epilepsy, schizophrenia, and in the production of next generation prosthetics.
He speaks to BBC Science Focus commissioning editor Jason Goodyer in this episode of the Science Focus Podcast.
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