The Jedi from the Star Wars movies use the Force to be able to control the minds of others. Scientists may have created such a mind-control system, allowing people to alter a mouse's genes through only the power of their minds.
While altering mouse genes is not what the Jedi will use with their mind control powers, this scientific breakthrough represents the first step towards developing technology that can replicate something that the Force can do.
The technology is a fusion of the latest in cybernetics and synthetic biology, with a wireless headset that transmits the wearer's brainwaves to an implant within a mouse to change the animal's genes.
The wearer of the wireless headset can change the amount of protein being made by a gene of the mouse through changing the wearer's state of mind from focused concentration to a relaxed state, and vice versa.
With time to practice, the wearers of the device discovered that they were able to turn on and turn off the gene of the mouse, allowing them to increase or decrease the protein levels of the blood system of the mouse at will.
The successful experiment, published in the Nature Communications journal, may lead to a radical new method of disease treatment. Scientists are hoping that the study's findings will lead to the development of technology which will monitor a person's brainwaves for illness symptoms, and then release medicine automatically for treatment of the disease.
While potential applications show huge promise, researchers accept that there are still some significant hurdles that need to be overcome before the technology can be used for the human body. However, Martin Fussenegger, the leader of the project, hopes that clinical trials of the system on people that are suffering from epilepsy or chronic pain can be launched within the next five years.
Fussenegger believes that the mind-control system can be as beneficial as prosthetic devices such as replacement hips and artificial hearts. The difference, however, is that while these devices operate on the physical level, the new technology will operate on the molecular level.
The device, after spotting developing illnesses, will allow the release of therapeutic proteins to stunt the development before the illness becomes a serious one.
In the published study, the team of Fussenegger details that the headset picks up the brainwaves of the wearer, which are then wirelessly beamed to a receiver that analyzes whether the wearer is meditating or concentrating. The signal controls an electromagnetic field, which is generated by the platform where a mouse is on.
The mouse received an implant that contained copper coils, LED and a small container filled with genetically altered cells. When the electromagnetic field turns on, the copper coils generate an electric current that turns on the LED, illuminating the cells that are designed to react to light and create new protein that is released through the membrane of the implant.
The genetically altered protein did not have any functions, but it allowed the researchers to measure its levels within the mouse.
