UC San Diego Builds Next-Generation Brain Implants and Resilient Materials

At UC San Diego, resilience is more than a metaphor—it is an engineering principle. The university’s physicists and bioengineers recently secured a $5 million NIH grant to develop transparent graphene-based neural implants that can record activity across wide regions of the brain. These implants, thinner than a strand of hair, are both flexible and transparent, allowing neuroscientists to record electrical signals while simultaneously imaging neurons through the material.

The promise is enormous: mapping how brain regions communicate with one another during movement, emotion, and disease. Graphene’s conductivity enables high-fidelity recordings, while its optical clarity allows researchers to watch neurons fire beneath it. The implants could transform how conditions like epilepsy or Parkinson’s are studied, enabling new neuroprosthetics that operate with minimal interference.

Meanwhile, on the macro scale, UC San Diego engineers are testing the limits of materials used in buildings and aerospace systems. The campus hosts the world’s largest outdoor shake table, capable of simulating earthquakes on full-scale structures. Current experiments are exploring new metamaterials—engineered composites that absorb vibration and redirect energy flow—to help buildings and bridges withstand seismic stress.

Both efforts share the same scientific spirit: understanding the physics of adaptation. Whether designing a membrane to read the human mind or a structure to resist an earthquake, UC San Diego’s scientists are demonstrating that resilience can be built into matter itself.