Scientists create 'artificial brain cell'

Scientists have created an artificial brain cell they believe could one day be used to treat devastating neurological diseases.

The team has managed to pass messages within the mind in the same way as nerve cells, using a tiny piece of plastic which can transmit electricity.

These messages are used by the brain to control many actions in the body.
Correcting when they go awry could be the key to treating some diseases like Parkinson's disease researchers believe.

Using the artificial brain cells, called a "delivery electrode", they have managed to control the hearing of guinea pigs.

Nerve cells in the brain release and use neurotransmitters, or chemicals that to talk to each other.

The new artificial cells can do the same, opening up potential treatments, the researchers claim.

Prof Agneta Richter-Dahlfors, from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, who led the research, said: "The ability to deliver exact doses of neurotransmitters opens completely new possibilities for correcting the signalling systems that are faulty in a number of neurological diseases."

The scientists now plan to develop a small unit of cells which can be implanted in the body.

Studies have already begun into potential uses of the technology to treat hearing loss, epilepsy and Parkinson's.

The research is reported in the journal Nature Materials.

Earlier this year researchers at Aston University in Birmingham created an artificial "brain" by taking cells from a cancerous tumour and reprogramming them to create those identical to the human nervous system.