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Imagine treating brain diseases with electronic implants delivered not through major surgery, but through a simple injection. MIT scientists have taken a dramatic step toward that future with a new technology called circulatronics—microscopic wireless devices that can travel through the bloodstream, cross the blood–brain barrier, and implant themselves precisely where treatment is needed. In mice, these tiny electronics were able to navigate to specific brain regions on their own and provide targeted electrical stimulation, a technique known as neuromodulation that is being explored for conditions like Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis, and brain tumours.
The research team, led by Shubham Yadav and senior author Deblina Sarkar, designed the devices to be extraordinarily small—about a billionth the length of a grain of rice—and coated them with living immune cells. These biological “partners” camouflage the electronics from the immune system and naturally home in on areas of inflammation, allowing the hybrids to slip through the intact blood–brain barrier without damaging it. Once implanted, the devices can be wirelessly powered using light to stimulate neurons with micron-level precision, while remaining biocompatible and safe for surrounding brain tissue.
Circulatronics could one day make brain implants far safer, cheaper, and more widely accessible by eliminating invasive surgery. The technology may also offer hope against deadly conditions like glioblastoma and diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, where tumours appear in multiple locations that are difficult or impossible to reach with conventional methods. The researchers are now working to expand the technology to treat a range of neurological disorders, integrate advanced sensing and computing functions, and prepare for clinical trials through a new MIT spinoff, Cahira Technologies.
