Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Research Highlight
  • Published:

Bioelectronics

A biodegradable tent electrode

Nature Reviews Bioengineering volume 2, page 719 (2024)Cite this article

Subjects

Large-area brain interfaces and electrodes are valuable tools for real-time monitoring of signals across diverse cortical regions and enable the localization of brain lesions and seizure activity. However, for positioning electrodes on the brain surface, traditional large-area interphases often require skull-removal surgeries and risk complications such as infection, swelling and neurogenic hypertension. Additionally, a removal surgery is necessary after monitoring is completed. Now, writing in Nature Electronics, Seung-Kyun Kang, Ju-Young Kim, Jung Keun Hyun and colleagues developed a wireless, biodegradable and self-deployable tent electrode for cortex monitoring.

To design the tent electrode, the team looked for soft and conforming materials to avoid damaging the brain tissue. They picked inorganic electronic materials with nanometre-scale thickness for flexibility and excellent electrical performance. Shape-memory polymer substrates were also employed to ensure softness and the ability to restore the original shape. Finally, a mesh structure was incorporated into the design to maximize both shape freedom and compliance. “This flexibility can minimize the risk of injury and ensure accurate signal measurement. Additionally, the device is composed of biodegradable electronic materials which gradually dissolve in biofluids,” explains Kang.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

Original article

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nature Reviews Bioengineering https://www.nature.com/natrevbioeng/

    Caroline Beyer

Authors
  1. Caroline Beyer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Caroline Beyer.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Beyer, C. A biodegradable tent electrode. Nat Rev Bioeng 2, 719 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44222-024-00243-9

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44222-024-00243-9

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing