Abstract
We report a new type of brain-machine interface enabling a human operator to control nanometer-size robots inside a living animal by brain activity. Recorded EEG patterns are recognized online by an algorithm, which in turn controls the state of an electromagnetic field. The field induces the local heating of billions of mechanically-actuating DNA origami robots tethered to metal nanoparticles, leading to their reversible activation and subsequent exposure of a bioactive payload. As a proof of principle we demonstrate activation of DNA robots to cause a cellular effect inside the insect Blaberus discoidalis, by a cognitively straining task. This technology enables the online switching of a bioactive molecule on and off in response to a subject's cognitive state, with potential implications to therapeutic control in disorders such as schizophrenia, depression, and attention deficits, which are among the most challenging conditions to diagnose and treat.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | e0161227 |
| Journal | PLoS ONE |
| Volume | 11 |
| Issue number | 8 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Aug 2016 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The authors wish to thank all the members of the Bachelet lab for technical assistance and valuable discussions. This work was supported by grants from the Europoean Research Council Starting Grant and a Marie Curie Career Reintegration Grant to I.B.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Arnon et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.