A multidisciplinary research team from IT (Henrique Leonel Gomes, Carmo Medeiros, Ana Mestre, and Pedro Inácio), together with teams from the Centre for Biomedical Research of the University of the Algarve and the Max Planck Institute, in Mainz-Germany, has developed electronic components that can measure the electric activity of nervous system cells that until now had gone unnoticed.

The research was recently published in Science Advances (an open access-journal of the Science publishing group). According to this journal, the findings have a high attention score compared to outputs of the same age (among the top 5%).

The study is raising new questions regarding the possible electrical signaling produced by brain tumors and their impact in the brain. These findings were only possible due to the electronic components able to detect ultra-weak bioelectrical signals.

The new electronic technology was tested in cells from mice brains with astroglioma type tumors. These tumor cells derive from astrocytes, nervous system cells that give functional, metabolic and structural support to neurons. This new developed technology allows measuring discrete electrical signals, (below one micro-volt) that are produced by cultures of cells. Until now, the available technology was only capable of measuring signals above 10 micro-volts. Another advantage of these new electronic components is that they allow examining the cells throughout the culture process directly from the electronic chips that detect the electrical signals. These finding may pave the way for future brain tumor therapies.

In the photo the IT research team, from left to right: Youssef El Amine, Sanaz Asgarifar, Inês Araújo, Ana Mestre, Henrique Gomes and Pedro Inácio