Nanotechnology for the Brain

This article explores various nanotechnology-based programs conducted by different teams to study the brain. In the United States, the National Institutes of Health is leading the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative, a public–private program that will spend millions on research. The European Union has also proposed a similar effort that will focus on simulating the entire brain on supercomputers. Hongkun Park is developing nanowire arrays that can inject neurons with chemicals or measure electrical activity as it develops in the cell. Weiss and Anne Andrews, a professor of psychiatry at UCLA, have developed sensors that detect the important neurotransmitter, serotonin, by engineering surfaces that bond with it exclusively and not with related molecules. The next step is to create transducers that signal when sensors capture a serotonin molecule. Nanotechnology will play a vital role in that advance.