New energy source for future medical implants: sugar

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/glucose-fuel-cell-0612.html

[font face=Serif][font size=5]New energy source for future medical implants: sugar[/font]
[font size=4]Implantable fuel cell built at MIT could power neural prosthetics that help patients regain control of limbs.[/font]

Anne Trafton, MIT News Office
June 12, 2012

[font size=3]MIT engineers have developed a fuel cell that runs on the same sugar that powers human cells: glucose. This glucose fuel cell could be used to drive highly efficient brain implants of the future, which could help paralyzed patients move their arms and legs again.

The fuel cell, described in the June 12 edition of the journal PLoS ONE, strips electrons from glucose molecules to create a small electric current. The researchers, led by Rahul Sarpeshkar, an associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT, fabricated the fuel cell on a silicon chip, allowing it to be integrated with other circuits that would be needed for a brain implant.

The idea of a glucose fuel cell is not new: In the 1970s, scientists showed they could power a pacemaker with a glucose fuel cell, but the idea was abandoned in favor of lithium-ion batteries, which could provide significantly more power per unit area than glucose fuel cells. These glucose fuel cells also utilized enzymes that proved to be impractical for long-term implantation in the body, since they eventually ceased to function efficiently.

The new twist to the MIT fuel cell described in PLoS ONE is that it is fabricated from silicon, using the same technology used to make semiconductor electronic chips. The fuel cell has no biological components: It consists of a platinum catalyst that strips electrons from glucose, mimicking the activity of cellular enzymes that break down glucose to generate ATP, the cell’s energy currency. (Platinum has a proven record of long-term biocompatibility within the body.) So far, the fuel cell can generate up to hundreds of microwatts — enough to power an ultra-low-power and clinically useful neural implant.

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http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0038436

[eppur_se_muova]

1. Tempted to say "about time" -- but this is hard stuff to get right.

The idea of running implants/prosthetics from blood sugar has been around for ages. But implementation has been too big a challenge.

Hope it doesn't produce any by-products metabolism can't dispose of.