3-minute read
Beginnings
On November 6, 1789, the Italian anatomist and physician Luigi Galvani touched the sciatic nerve of a frog’s amputated leg with an electrically charged scalpel. The leg began to twitch wildly, prompting Galvani to cry out, “Look, the frog is alive!”1 Over the next 223 years, a lot has changed: steam engines and assembly lines, literacy and freedom of speech, vaccinations and antibiotics, computers and the internet, democracy and the rule of law. The scientific, political, and social progress of the last two centuries is so immense that Galvani’s world seems almost unimaginable to us today.
Some things, however, always stay the same – such as the fascination of experimental biologists with amphibians. In 2013, Michael Levin et.al succeeded in changing cells electric patterns to grow a third, functional eye on the tail of a tadpole. What unites these three scientists – beyond their amphibian subjects – is their field of research: the electrome. While Galvani inadvertently laid its foundation back in 1789, Levin and Blackstone’s experiment is among the most fascinating recent developments in this field.
The Electrome
The electrome describes the interplay of cells based on electricity within our bodies. This interaction is so central that no bodily function—from growth to wound healing to memory—could operate without the direct involvement of electrical forces. This has led scientists to believe that decoding the electrome could spark a biological revolution akin to the deciphering of the genome in the early 2000s. While the genome can be understood as the “book of life,” containing the instructions for an organism’s development and function, the electrome could be seen as the “language” or “software” of life. This language is based on electrical signals, utilizing ion channels, membrane voltages, and action potentials to coordinate the activity of cells and tissues. It represents the network through which cells communicate and collectively manage complex biological processes.
A Gateway to New Medical Advancements
At Cellectric, we believe that unraveling the electrome holds the potential to catalyze medical advancements precisely where current medicine reaches its limits. Especially relevant to our current research focus—a novel technology aimed at dramatically accelerating sepsis diagnosis—is the unprecedented level of selectivity achievable using electric fields. Our selective method can dissolve 99 percent of the human background (mainly red blood cells) in a blood sample while leaving the bacteria of interest unharmed. Such an advancement could shorten sepsis diagnosis by a lifesaving 24 hours.2
And yet, we are still nowhere near the limit of the possibilities that electrome research could offer medicine. Consider the three-eyed tadpole of Levin and his fellow researchers. The experiment may seem grotesque, but that should not distract from the breathtaking implications of the study. If, in 2013, we were already able to grow an additional functioning eye in a simple organism through targeted manipulation of bioelectrical signals, what might be possible in the coming decades? Regeneration of lost limbs, restoration of eyesight, reconnection of severed nerves? As early as the late 1980s, researchers succeeded in restoring basic bodily functions in paraplegic dogs using an electrically oscillating implant.3 Translating such research results to human subjects is one of the great hopes in electrome research.
What began with the twitching of a frog’s leg in Luigi Galvani’s study has now evolved into one of the most thrilling fields in contemporary biology. The electrome offers not just answers to longstanding biological mysteries, but also a gateway to transformative medical advancements. At Cellectric, we take pride in contributing to the global quest of unraveling the mysteries of our electrical dimension, uniting an interdisciplinary team of biologists, physicists, chemists, and engineers. Together, we are dedicated to exploring and understanding the electrome, driving forward innovations that have the potential to transform medicine and improve human health.
Author: Jonas Palus
1: LEIFIphysik. “Luigi Galvani (1737-1798).” Accessed August 20, 2024. https://www.leifiphysik.de/elektrizitaetslehre/elektrische-grundgroessen/geschichte/luigi-galvani-1737-1798
2: Levin, Michael et al. Transmembrane voltage potential controls embryonic eye patterning in Xenopus laevis (2012). Development 2012 (139.2): 313–323 Accessed August 29, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.073759
3: Borgens, R. B. Electrical stimulation helps dogs with spinal injuries. (1993). Purdue University. Accessed August 20, 2024. https://www.purdue.edu/uns/html3month/1990-95/930721.Borgens.dogstudy.html