As we surpassed the one-year mark of the project, the 2024 MINIGRAPH’s General Assembly in Barcelona has become the moment to celebrate the progress of the consortium, which task after task is moving closer to the vision of a new treatment for Parkinson’s disease.

Hosted by INBRAIN Neuroelectronics on 8th and 9th April at the Scientific Park, MINIGRAPH partners met again to share the latest advancements of this collaborative project: a new generation of brain implants based on groundbreaking graphene material and a minimally invasive robotic implantation procedure for the treatment of brain disorders.

And there was plenty of news to report on. High-density, high resolution minimally invasive cortical and subcortical devices are ready for testing in preclinical studies, ICN2 explained, marking a significant step forward for this pioneering technology.

The IMEC team confirmed the recent tape-out of the designed ASIC that will enable advanced bidirectional communication with the brain and unveiled the plan for testing the ASIC functionality. Staying with the technology progress, the Fraunhofer team presented the selected concept for a fully implantable neural interfaces integrating the ASIC and the graphene devices.

Researchers from CATRIN’s lab confirmed the safety of the graphene technology in an in vitro biocompatibility study. They also introduced first results of an ‘in silico’ study exploring the interaction between graphene and neuronal cells, with the aim of optimizing our implants and their therapeutic functionalities.

In a joint presentation, INBRAIN and LUMC shared their study on the capabilities of graphene microinterfaces for decoding and modulating brain activity, demonstrating how the high-density graphene neural sensors allowed decoding of brain activity with high fidelity in a clinically relevant setting.    

On the robotic implantation side, Nanoflex and ETH Zurich reported on the progress to develop precise surgical navigation using magnetic fields to guide micro-robots capable of delivering the ultra-flexible graphene neural devices in a minimally invasive procedure.

But beyond each of these advances, what the meeting has underscored is that the promise of new therapies and treatments for neurological disorders is becoming a reality. And, as a team, the MINIGRAPH consortium has reaffirmed the commitment of researchers and industry leaders to advance the field of neuroelectronic therapies to light up the path to a better neural future.