Post by MIT Media Lab

Currently, when an organ is paralyzed and dysfunctional due to injury or disease, the most common options for restoring function are synthetic — pacemakers, for example, which regulate cardiac rhythms. However, new MIT research, published in Nature, demonstrates a new biohybrid system that uses rewired nerves to revive paralyzed organs. These “living implants” could open the door to a new genre of medicine, one in which a person’s own tissue becomes the hardware. “Our research is on the brink of giving new life to various parts and extensions of the body,” says Dr. Guillermo Herrera-Arcos, a postdoctoral researcher in the Media Lab’s Biomechatronics group and co-lead of the study. “It’s exciting to think that our system could enhance human potential in ways that once only belonged to the realm of science fiction.”