Canadian and German researchers have grown snail nerve cells on a microchip and showed the cells have memory and can communicate.

The researchers say this melding of machine and biology has a wide-range of potential applications. Think RoboCop – a microchip that communicates with your brain.

Neurobiology Prof. Naweed Syed of the University of Calgary and his colleagues have shown it's possible to grow a network of snail brain cells and reconnect them on a specially designed silicon chip.

Brain cells on a chip

Not only did the neurons survive, they actually grew and incorporated the chip as it if were a brain cell, too.

Using a microcapacitor on the chip to fire a charge, scientists stimulated one nerve cell to communicate with a second cell. The second cell transmitted the signal to other cells within the network.

More importantly, when the chip was fired, the neurons responded. A transistor on the chip recorded the cells' communication.

Prof. Naweed Syed

Syed said in a broader sense, the study shows data can be imparted to the brain through an electronic rather than a biological link.

The researchers call the discovery a giant leap in answering fundamental questions of biology and neuro-electronics, paving the way to harness the power of nanotechnology.

"The brain continues to generate activity, but there is no organ attached that brain cells can control," said Syed. "The idea is to implant these chips inside the brain – and have a chip control the prosthetic device such as a limb."

The next step is research on mice and other mammals, focusing on interfacing silicon chips with the brain to control artificial limbs.

Syed co-authored the study in February's issue of Physical Review Letters with researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Munich, Germany.

The research was funded by the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.