Custom-engineered DNA Structures

NPR : Fun with DNA

Cool.

It's not exactly neurotechnology, but custom-engineered nanoscale structures made from DNA, like those featured below, could be used as components in nanoscale machines that facilitate neural interfacing.





An impressive result nonetheless. How does it work? If my memory of molecular biology serves me correctly, certain sequences of DNA are predisposed to bond with other segments through electrostatic attraction of special embedded proteins. After deciding on a desired shape, you can take a single long piece of DNA and splice in these sequences so that it'll fold into the shape you want. A computer program helps calculate where these sequences will need to go, which may be an NP-complete problem in general.

Researcher: Paul Rothemund
Institution: Caltech

Insect control via pupal implants

Pentagon plans cyber-insect army

So DARPA has requested proposals to implement a MEMS device into insects at the pupal stage which can then be used to direct the insects' behavior at an adult stage.

The linked article is from the BBC and somewhat derisive of the idea, but I believe the concept is workable, at least in principle.

Installing control systems at an early stage in an organism's development allows it to adapt to use signals coming from the implanted device - one idea I've heard thrown around involves grafting electronic components onto fetal mice in order to allow their brains to adapt to make use of additional functionality. I haven't read the DARPA proposal closely yet, so this may have no connection at all, but I'll comment further once I have time to read it.