A team of engineers at the Lawrence Livemore National Laboratory has been working on a collaborative project to create an implantable, microfabricated neural device that has the potential to help members of the military with traumatic brain injuries and possibly help others with Alzheimer’s disease and epilepsy. Research engineer Angela Tooker says that’s one of the major applications, but that’s not all.

"We are working on a large number of other applications as well. There’s a list of seven neuropsychiatric disorders and that’s another big project. We have auditory implants as well as a number of other things targeting Parkinson’s, major depressive disorders. We have a number of projects across all applications within the neural field."

The lab has been collaborating on the project with neurosurgeons at UCLA.

"Building the technology is great, but we also need to make sure that we have the right surgical techniques to do it and get the results that we want. At the end of the day, we want to be able to do this safely."