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June 24, 2006
"Rats that survive to the age of four are the wisest and the most cynical beasts on earth."
When they glom onto a scaffold of carbon nanodots that also act as electrodes for measurement, rat brain cells organize into crystalline grids.
A team led by Yael Hanein of Tel Aviv University in Israel used 100-micrometre-wide bundles of nanotubes to coax rat neurons into forming regular patterns on a sheet of quartz.
The neurons cannot stick to the quartz surface but do bind to the nanotube dots, in clusters of about between 20 and 100. Once attached, these neuron bundles are just the right distance from one another to stretch out projections called axons and dendrites to make links with other clusters nearby.
The electrical activity of the neural network can easily be measured because carbon nanotubes conduct electricity and so can function as electrodes.
The process makes it possible to create more uniform neural networks, Hanein says. In experiments they last longer than other artificial networks, surviving for up to 11 weeks. This could be crucial for building biosensors using the cells, she claims.
That's all for today...
Posted by Jon Rubin at June 24, 2006 10:02 PM
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