Technology
Instruments for asking biological questions
Last reviewed 14 October 2026
GRAIL
Global Resonance Assessment & Incision Locator
Active research and translational developmentA multimodal intraoperative research platform designed to gather complementary information from living brain and tumour tissue within one measurement framework. Modalities may include electrophysiology, electrochemical sensing, electrical impedance, Raman spectroscopy, other optical and physicochemical measurements, and computational methods for alignment, quality control and joint interpretation.
The programme is testing whether relationships across these signals can characterise tissue more informatively than any single measurement. Its intended clinical value remains to be established through appropriately designed studies.
jULIEs
Nanostructured glass–metal ultramicroelectrodes
Peer-reviewed experimental technologyGlass-insulated metal fibres under 30 µm in diameter, with tips electrochemically modified with gold nanostructures and iridium oxide to bring impedance below 500 kΩ at 1 kHz. Published experiments in mice showed recording and stimulation of single and multi-unit activity from about 40 µm to about 6 mm deep, with no detectable blood–brain barrier damage in the tests performed.
Source: J. Neural Eng. 2022
CHIME
CMOS-hosted in vivo microelectrodes
Peer-reviewed experimental technologyAn approach for connecting three-dimensional microwire arrays directly to CMOS electronics. It separates the design of the tissue interface from the development of multiplexing and readout hardware, so that recording can scale with commercially developed chips.
Source: Front. Neurosci. 2020
Massively parallel microwire arrays
Peer-reviewed, developed collaborativelyIn related collaborative work, three-dimensional microwire bundles were bonded to large-scale CMOS arrays and used to record single-unit and local-field-potential activity in experimental preparations, including from awake, moving mice.
Source: Sci. Adv. 2020
Neuromorphic and non-von Neumann hardware
Research direction seeking programme supportHardware architectures that move computation closer to sensing, including neuromorphic processors, event-driven systems, in-memory computation and mixed-signal hardware–algorithm co-design. Any advantage for sparse biological signals, multimodal integration or closed-loop experiments must be established against an appropriate conventional baseline. An integrated lab platform does not yet exist.
How to read our status labels
- Peer-reviewed experimental technology
- Methods and results reported in a peer-reviewed publication. This does not by itself imply clinical validation.
- Active research and translational development
- A platform or programme being built and evaluated. Performance, use and value remain under investigation.
- Research direction
- A scientifically motivated direction that needs substantial further evidence and development.