Son Dong-hee, a Professor from the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, developed a durable and fatigue-resistant soft neuroprosthetic device with a team from Seoul National University. A neuroprosthetic device treats diseases by collecting and stimulating neural signals through their connections with the nerves. However, since peripheral nerves are located in between muscular tissue, the muscular activity provides stimulation to peripheral nerves, causing material degradation. Thus, achieving long-term stability of the device inserted between peripheral nerves was challenging. To overcome this problem, the research team utilized a nanocomposite with a gold nano-shell and coated with silver flakes to synthesize fatigue-resistant electronic materials. This made the device have high biocompatibility and mechanical endurance. According to tests, after implanting the device on a mouse’s sciatic nerve, bidirectional signaling for over five weeks was successfully obtained. Prof. Son explained the significance of this experiment, “By developing a neural interface that can innovatively improve stability, which was the limitation of neural prosthetics, the device can greatly contribute to the treatment and rehabilitation of neurological diseases.” The research results were published in the March 19th edition of the authoritative international journal, Advanced Materials.