Recently, researchers at the Instituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) in Genoa created an artificial retina made of a biocompatible photovoltaic polymer.
But a new breakthrough from Harvard researchers has produced the first "cyborg" tissue, created by embedding functional, biocompatible nanowires into lab-grown flesh.
In France, researchers last month unveiled their invention of biocompatible, microscopic transistors that can be safely used to amplify and record signals from within the brain.
The material is an organic photovoltaic semiconductor (called rr-P3HT) which, unlike the metal or silicon-based materials used until now for such biotechnological interfaces, is soft, light, flexible and highly biocompatible and naturally sensitive to visible light.