Opportunities and Challenges of Graphene Technology in Medtech

Conferencia expuesta online en el Graphene and 2DM Industrial Forum (2021) celebrada del 26 al 27 de eneroGraphene and graphene-related materials display a combination of properties that make them very attractive for a broad variety of applications, among them biomedical and medtech applications [1]. During the last years we have witnessed an increasing amount of evidence demonstrating that prototype devices based on these materials can surpass the performance and technical specifications of the state-of-the-art technology [2,3]. However, the demonstration of an improved technical performance does not guarantee a successful translation to a clinical product; in the field of medtech, regulatory hurdles, for instance, are particularly penalizing for novel materials. In this presentation I will discuss on the opportunities and challenges of graphene technology for biomedical and medical applications, with a particular focus on devices that are intended to interface with the nervous system, such as implantable devices to monitor and modulate brain activity for diagnosis or therapy purposes. Clinical applications of these devices are, for instance, the treatment of brain disorders such as Parkinson´s disease or epilepsy, or the development of brain-machine interfaces to help patients with sensory or motor disabilities. I will review recent developments in the field, with a particular attention to the technical and scientific grounds of these developments. Further, I will also discuss other non-technical challenges that these technologies will have to overcome to be eventually translated into medtech products