The failure of systemic drug treatments to address numerous neurological disorders has spurred the development of alternative approaches that attempt localized treatment. These localized treatments focus therapy on the region of the brain affected by the pathology, thereby enhancing the effectives of the treatment while reducing side effects inherent in systemic treatments. Some of these approaches such as optogenetics and designer receptors exclusively activated by designer drugs have shown promise but have been limited by safety concerns about the need for viral transfer of engineered proteins and molecules. Other treatments such as syringe injection or convection-enhanced delivery of drugs are prone to clogging or reflux and may also cause local edemas due to the pressure increase at the injection point. A collaboration between researchers in the UK and France has developed a device that can sense electrical brain activity and deliver a pre-loaded drug dose in response. The technology is relevant to epilepsy, and it has high hopes for targeting brain cancers and neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

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