Silicon computer chips successfully implanted in living human cells.

clipped from century-hitech.com Scientists have begun integrating electronics into biology, but don’t bolt your doors in fear of cyborgs and hybrid human-robots yet! Researchers from the Instituto de Microelectrónica de Barcelona IMB-CNM (CSIC), have found a way to implant minute silicon chips into living cells and use them as intracellular sensors. This bio-nanotechnological advancement could tell us a lot about how our cells are working at a nano level, and have widespread implications for early detection of diseases, and new cellular repair mechanisms. The team in the Micro and Nanosystems Department at IMB-CNM (CSIC) began by fabricating different batches of polysilicon chips, a typical semiconductor material, and choosing the most suitable types with lateral dimensions of 1.5–3µm and with a thickness of 0.5 µm before implanting them inside living cells taken from Dictyostelium discoideum and human HeLa cells.

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