Chips and human cells merged
Its not the stuff of a William Gibson novel, but researchers at the Max-Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Martinsried, Germany have connected living tissue to electronic circuitry. The development could benefit artificial body part technology as well as biochip research seeking a fusion of living tissue and chips. Peter Fromherz accomplished the breakthrough by adding a gene for an ion channel capable of conducting large electrical charges to human kidney cells. The resultant cells produced much greater electrical charges when grown on electronic sensors.
Fromherz says, "Having solved the principal problem of coupling cellular electrical signals with silicon electrical signals, we can now proceed to develop cellular biosensors."
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