Transparent Skull Implant Provides a Window to the Brain

Researchers have developed a transparent skull implant they say could open up new treatments for life-threatening neurological disorders, including brain cancer and traumatic brain injury.

Made of the same ceramic material used in hip implants, the material, called yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ), is firmly established as one the body tolerates well.

The team, from the University of California, Riverside, say they envision the device facilitating the clinical translation of brain imaging and neuromodulation technologies currently being developed under the Obama administration's BRAIN Initiative.

"This is a case of a science fiction sounding idea becoming science fact, with strong potential for positive impact on patients," Guillermo Aguilar, a professor of mechanical engineering at UC Riverside's Bourns College of Engineering, said in a statement.

Among its most promising roles is one involving laser-based treatments. Despite showing great potential in treating many brain disorders, such treatments have nevertheless been held back due to the need to perform a craniectomy in order to access the brain since most lasers cannot penetrate the skull. The new device would remove the need for craniectomies, however, by providing a clear window into the brain through which doctors could aim the lasers.

Although not the first transparent skull implant, the YSZ device is nevertheless the first with the potential to be used in humans.

Of it, team member Dr. Devin Binder, a clinician and associate professor of biomedical sciences at UC Riverside said, "This is a crucial first step towards an innovative new concept that would provide a clinically-viable means for optically accessing the brain, on-demand, over large areas, and on a chronically-recurring basis, without need for repeated craniectomies."

Supported in part by the UC Riverside Chancellor's Strategic Research Initiative, the paper outlining the implant was published online in the journal Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine.