Flexible implantable devices ‘offer numerous medical applications’

Scientists have made a breakthrough in the development of flexible electronic devices that could potentially revolutionise the design of implantable medical technology.

Created by the University of Texas at Dallas and the University of Tokyo, the biologically adaptive and flexible transistors are able to become soft when implanted inside the body and can also be deployed to grip 3D objects, such as large tissues, nerves and blood vessels.

They were developed using shape memory polymers that respond to the body's environment and become less rigid, while maintaining their electronic properties.

In testing, the researchers were able to use heat to deploy devices around cylinders as small as 2.25 mm in diameter, before implanting them in rats, where they morphed with the living tissue.

Study author Dr Walter Voit, assistant professor of materials science and engineering and mechanical engineering at the University of Texas at Dallas, said: "In our device design, we are getting closer to the size and stiffness of precision biologic structures, but have a long way to go to match nature's amazing complexity, function and organisation."

Flexible electronics are an important field of engineering research at the moment, as teams worldwide seek to create devices that can be bent, folded or rolled up for various applications.