HEALTH
FRONTIER RESEARCH
Nanodiamonds sparkle as
science delves into the human
body
28 January 2016
by Ben Deighton
Researchers could use diamonds that are one three-thousandth of the size of a human hair to detect cancer faster. Image credit: Fedor
Jelezko
The world’s hardest natural material also has the most enthralling sparkle – these two properties
mean that tiny diamonds are giving us dramatic new ways of interacting with the human body.
Whether it’s enabling MRI scanners to see the way drugs move into cells, or creating durable
connections between retinal implants and neurons, diamonds or even tiny fragments of them known as
nanodiamonds are lending their glitter to medical research.
‘Diamonds or graphene are very dense materials and
therefore nothing diffuses through their surfaces, so
there is no contamination of such implants when used
to electrically exchange with neural cells,’ said
Professor Philippe Bergonzo, coordinator of the
NEUROCARE project, which has developed a new
type of interface linking medical devices to neural
tissues like the retina or the brain based on
nanocrystalline diamond and graphene.
See also
Ultra-short pulse lasers
increase precision of
diamond sculpting
A researcher’s best friend?
What’s at the centre of the
earth?
1
‘The implant needs to be very close to neural tissues to make the difference between two nearby
neurons,’ said Prof. Bergonzo, based at France’s Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission.
‘In the NEUROCARE project … we were demonstrating that the graphene or diamond materials are able
to reduce the tissue reaction, thus to be closer to the neuron cells in order to have a better-quality
The work they are doing means that nanodiamond- and graphene-based brain interfaces are so durable
that they could form the basis for long-lasting brain implants that can prevent epileptic fits, and so
small that they can be connected directly to a neuron, making retinal implants good enough to allow
blind people to read.
Today’s experimental brain interfaces use metals such as
platinum, but the problem in the long term is the potential
degradation of the metal surface within the body, altering the
electrical exchange.
That’s why nanodiamond technology is so important. It’s the
kind of breakthrough that could one day lead to long-term help
for locked-in patients, where experimental temporary brain
implants aim at enabling them to communicate directly with
computers and even operate exoskeletons in institutions such
as the Clinatec institute at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire
Grenoble Alpes in France.
Now the NEUROCARE researchers are looking for a company
with the cash to fund formal trials and try to get regulatory
approval for it to be used in commercial products, a process
which can take around five years.
The US
The Issue
While the EU is spending billions
funding research and innovation, it
often falls behind the US when it
comes to turning those new ideas
into commercial products.
US-based venture capital firms are
often willing to take on bigger risks
than their European counterparts,
which has led to the success of
regions like Silicon Valley in
California, home to Facebook,
Google and Amazon.
Carlos Moedas, European
Commissioner for Research,
Science and Innovation, has named
open innovation the first priority of
‘In the US companies are a lot more ready to take risks,’ said
his tenure. He is exploring how a
Prof. Bergonzo. ‘It’s pretty difficult to find those ambitions in
European Innovation Council could
Europe nowadays.’
help inventors to commercialise
Innovative companies will also be key to bringing nanodiamond- their products, and looking at the
based medical imaging technology out of the laboratory and into possibility of a fund of funds to
leverage more European venture
hospitals and clinics.
capital.
The NDI project, funded by the EU's European Research
Council, is working on a way to use nanodiamonds to enable
standard MRI scanners to zoom in on single cells. The project, which runs until the summer, has set up
a company to develop the technology and is already collaborating with big high-tech firms such as
Germany’s Bosch and France-based Thales.
This search has led them to look across the Atlantic, even
though the original research was funded here in Europe.
‘Once big industry and small startups get involved in this, it will ensure the transfer of technology
towards real-world applications,’ said coordinator Professor Fedor Jelezko, from Ulm University in
Germany.
The technology means that cancer could be detected faster and would help increase the speed of drug
development.
It’s all thanks to the unique properties of nanodiamonds, which are often made by milling down standard
diamonds.
MRI scanners work by picking up the spin of atoms. However, normally they only pick one nucleus up
out of a hundred thousand.
The way to improve this is to make the spins
extremely cold, which is impossible in a live
person.
In diamonds, the spin of carbon atoms can be
controlled by light, and it can be made very cold
using laser irradiation, which lasts for days.
‘Diamond is a unique
material.’
2
‘To make the spins very cold, without cooling the
sample, the body, we do it with light,’ Prof. Jelezko
said. ‘That’s something where diamond is a unique
material.’
Professor Fedor Jelezko,
Ulm University, Germany
The next step is to take the resolution further, and
to make the technology user-friendly enough that it can be used in a live setting in medical laboratories.
‘There is a long way to go, but we and other colleagues are working on a path towards this dream,’ he
said.
More info
NEUROCARE
NDI
3