Comprehensive Summary
This study investigates neuromodulation and how it can combine with hydrogels to create a therapy that supports neural regeneration. Programmed neuromodulations and hydrogels were localized to specific neural locations with clinical effects. The neuromodulation was split into five modes: biochemical, biomechanical, electrical, ionic, and optical, in order to accentuate the engineering used to change the modulations. Hydrogels were fused with organic and inorganic elements to examine how these elements could show how cells are stimulated to help develop neural therapies for neural prosthetic application and nerve repair, among other novel therapies. The study shows how engineering principles could be synergistically applied to neuromodulations to create neural therapies.
Outcomes and Implications
Hydrogels can be developed to improve neuromodulations for new brain therapies for people suffering from neurodegenerative therapies or nerve damage. Artificial intelligence could also be incorporated with hydrogel-supported therapies in the future to speed up the creation of brain-machine interfaces.