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Parkinson's disease may one day be treated with a shot of magnetic discs

Although brain-implanted electrodes do help minimize the effects of Parkinson's disease and other neurological disorders, implanting and activating those electrodes can be a tricky process. That's why scientists are now developing an alternative, in the form of tiny injectable magnetic discs.

Developed by scientists from MIT and Germany's Friedrich-Alexander University, the flat hexagonal particles are each just 250 nanometers in width, and consist of a two-layer magnetostrictive core housed within a piezoelectric shell. It was found that by activating those discs via a relatively weak external electromagnet, the scientists could produce the same amount of motor control as was possible using implanted electrodes delivering mild electrical stimulation. A paper on the study – led by MIT's Prof. Polina Anikeeva and grad student Ye Ji Kim – was recently published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

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