How hair-thin brain fibers could help treat Alzheimer’s, epilepsy, and Parkinson’s

The human brain consists of more than 80 billion neurons, interconnected through pathways that are responsible for learning, memory, and sensation. When something goes wrong with the brain’s circuitry, it can lead to disorders such as epilepsy or Alzheimer’s disease.

For more than a decade, Xiaoting Jia, electrical and computer engineering professor at Virginia Tech, has been developing neural implant fibers: hair-thin, flexible tubes through which she can run electronics and deliver drug therapy to treat those devastating neurological conditions.

“We’re trying to use this minimally invasive fiber technology to understand how the brain functions, how it’s connected, and how it performs regular cognitive function,” Jia said. “We can then use those fibers to detect diseases and apply therapeutics.”

For Alzheimer’s Awareness Month, Jia shared how neural fiber implants could offer cutting-edge treatment methods for Alzheimer’s and two other neurological diseases.

• Alzheimer’s disease. "Alzheimer’s affects millions of people worldwide. However, the mechanisms of the disease are understudied. We want to use our fibers with optical, electrical, and microfluidic components to go deep inside the hippocampus region, where Alzheimer’s disease originates. We’ll look at neuron activities, try to see what’s causing neuron death, and see if we can apply localized drug delivery to reverse the disease progression."
• Epilepsy. “Current epilepsy detection methods are based on EEG recordings from the surface of the brain, which can’t identify the exact starting place of the seizure. With our fiber devices, we’re hoping to precisely detect the seizure onset and prevent the signal from propagating to the entire brain.” 
• Parkinson’s disease. “Deep brain stimulation has been used in the field for many years to treat severe Parkinson’s symptoms. However, the current technology used in clinical settings has limited electrodes and the devices are large. We’re trying to create devices that are much smaller, but have many more programmable electrodes. Hopefully, this induces less damage to the brain while providing more effective treatments to minimize side effects and improve outcomes for patients.”

About Jia

Xiaoting Jia is a professor in the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and a 2025 College of Engineering Dean’s Fellow. Her research centers on the intersection of health and electrical engineering, improving and advancing potential treatments for neurological diseases.