Electrical signals control a vast number of activities in the human body, from exchanges of messages between brain neurons and stimulation of the heart muscle to the impulses that enable hands and feet to move, among many other examples. To monitor or modulate these signals for medical purposes, a biocompatible and biodegradable optical fiber based on agar, a substance extracted from Gracilaria seaweed, has just been developed.
The research was led by Eric Fujiwara, a professor at the State University of Campinas’s School of Mechanical Engineering (FEM-UNICAMP) in São Paulo state, Brazil; Cristiano Monteiro de Barros Cordeiro at the Gleb Wataghin Institute of Physics (IFGW-UNICAMP); and Hiromasa Oku at Gunma University in Japan. An article about it is published in Scientific Reports.
“Biocompatible devices are indispensable when fiber optics is used in medical applications such as monitoring of vitals, phototherapy or optogenetics [a method of controlling and monitoring specific cells by combining optics, genetics and bioengineering], among others. Optical fibers made of biodegradable materials are also an alternative to existing telecommunications technologies based on glass or plastic fibers,” Fujiwara said.
The novel optical fiber was produced from agar, a natural gelatin obtained from red algae. It is transparent, flexible, edible and renewable. The same researchers had previously developed an agar-based biocompatible optical fiber as a sensor to monitor chemical concentration and humidity.
“The production process consists basically of filling cylindrical molds with agar solutions. Our latest research expands the range of applications, proposing a novel type of optical sensor that leverages agar’s electrical conductivity,” Fujiwara explained.
2023-09-20 16:00:04
Original from phys.org