A new technique that could provide a prosthetic limb that moves and responds like an actual flesh and blood limb has been a major goal for researchers and physicians for years. Now a joint project by researchers from Sandia National Laboratories, the University of New Mexico and the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston has found a way for amputees to gain better control over their prosthetics with help from their own nervous systems.

Despite major advancements in the field of prosthetics researchers still haven't found a way to integrate the amputees' nerves with the prosthetic devices. A major stumbling block for this synthesis is actually the body's own nervous system. Peripheral nerves that have been severed by amputation can no longer transmit or receive the needed sensory signals to create a direct neural-prosthetic interface.

To solve this problem, the Sandia research team focused on developing a scaffold-like structure that will act as a scaffold to let nerves grow in naturally. The scaffold will also be conductive enough to relay signals to the prosthetics through the use of electrodes and carbon nanotubes. If successful the team could develop prosthetic limbs that are agile, can discern temperature and restore the sensation of touch to amputee patients.

"We think the interface problem is key to enabling the neuro-prosthetic concept," Dr. Shawn Dirk, one of the researchers behind the finding, told Wired. "And solving that is how we're going to give amputees their bodies back."

The team of created the fiber structure using polymer chains and multi-walled carbon nanotubes, The team then created scaffold using two types of polymers made from different materials one of them a biodegradable material so that the scaffold will dissolve once installed. The scaffold is designed to provide a connection between existing nerves and new electronics and to let the new nerves grow into the newly innervated limb.

This new type of prosthetic is still years away from becoming available for patients but the team has been testing them with lab rats to show their viability. Two versions of the scaffold were stitched to the legs of rats to test how well they were received by the body. The second scaffold, which was designed to dissolve, showed that nerve cells had begun to grow into the structure and the rats' immune systems were accepting the foreign material.

The initial paper detailing the team's results was presented at the Materials Research Society's Fall Meeting.