Generally speaking, once nerve damage occurs in animals and humans, it is irreversible and can have debilitating consequences. Researchers at Rice University in the United States have however recently discovered a way of using wonder material graphene in combination with a widely used polymer, polyethylene glycol, to create a material that can actually bridge the gap in damaged nerve cells.
It works by making use of the inherent high conductivity of graphene, usually lost as soon as graphene is incorporated into a system, and also limited in use by the size of graphene sheets that can currently be produced. Graphene oxide has had some more success in terms of its use in real life applications, but the conductivity is much lower than that of graphene. Professor James Tour and his team have already mastered the method by which they can create ribbons of highly conductive graphene (and not graphene oxide, which is usually used more frequently than graphene, owing to its solubility in water), but now by functionalizing the edges of these ribbons with polyethylene glycol, a biocompatible material used in everything from surgery to sunken ships, and then mixing this with more of the same polymer, they create a material that is electrically conductive and ready to connect the damaged ends of nerve cells due to its new-found water solubility that otherwise prevented its use in biosystems such as this.
Although this technology has only been tested on a rat with a severed spinal cord to positive results, many years of further testing lie ahead for this research group. (Photo Credit: CARL DE SOUZA/AFP/Getty Images)
The research group have tried their wonder material, named Texas-PEG, out on the severed spinal cord of a rat, who was able to transmit sensory and motor signals across what was previously a nerve gap within 24 hours. This is aided by the tendency of nerve cells to readily grow over this material.
While many years of further testing lie ahead for this group's discovery, the promise of mobility that it could offer is too tempting to not look into further. By using a novel method of producing a new smart material and combining it with the solubility of a common resin, this material could hold the key to several medical advances, and is definitely one to watch.