Scientists have created a mind-control system that allows a person to alter the genes in a mouse through the power of thought alone.

The approach fuses the latest advances in cybernetics with those in synthetic biology by connecting a wireless headset that monitors brainwaves to an implant in the mouse that can change the rodent’s genes.

A person wearing the device could alter how much protein was made from a gene in the mouse by changing his or her state of mind from concentrating to relaxed or vice-versa.

With practice, volunteers found that they could turn the gene on or off in the mouse at will, and thereby raise or lower the levels of protein circulating in the animal’s blood system.

The experiment could lead to the development of a radical new approach to the treatment of diseases. Scientists hope it is a first step towards the development of a system that will monitor brainwaves for signs of illnesses and automatically release medicines into the body to treat them.

Researchers have some major hurdles to overcome before the system can be implanted into humans, but Martin Fussenegger, a bioengineer who leads the project at ETH Zurich said he hoped to see clinical trials in people with chronic pain or epilepsy in the next five years.

“We’re familiar with prosthetic devices, such as artificial hearts and replacement hips, but we’ve not transferred the concept to the molecular world,” Fussenegger said. “This is where I believe our mind-control device could set an example. If I’m right, which is far from certain, this could change the treatment strategies of the future.

“We’ve learned how to rearrange atoms into chemical structures and there are good success stories about using chemicals as drugs to treat diseases. But for me, using chemicals to treat bodies that are mostly about proteins controlling proteins has its limits. We want a device that does it all in the body, that interfaces with the physiology of the body.”

In the body, genes are the templates for all the proteins that are needed to make and maintain healthy cells. But diseases can cause, or be caused by, a disruption to normal protein levels. Fussenegger’s device aims to spot medical conditions early on and release therapeutic proteins before the problem becomes serious.

Writing in the journal Nature Communications, Fussenegger’s team describes a system that demonstrates the idea. In the report, volunteers are asked either to meditate or concentrate while wearing a headset that picks up their brainwaves. These brainwaves are beamed wirelessly to a receiving unit that works out the person’s state of mind. This signal is then used to control an electromagnetic field generated by a platform that a mouse is sitting on.

Beforehand, the mouse was fitted with a small implant containing copper coils, a light-emitting diode (LED) and a tiny container of genetically modified cells. When the electromagnetic field switches on beneath the mouse, an electric current is induced in the implant’s coils which makes the LED shine a beam of red light. This light illuminates the cells which are designed to respond by switching on a particular gene, causing the cells to make a new protein which seeps out of the implant’s membrane.

In the tests, the new protein did not do anything important to the mice. But it allowed scientists to measure its levels rising and falling in the blood while people wearing the headset changed their state of mind.

In a series of follow-up experiments, volunteers wearing the headset could see when the LED came on, because the red light shone through the mouse’s skin. In time, they learned to control the light – and so the gene – simply by thinking.

One of the toughest problems the scientists face is how to find reliable signals of illness in a fuzzy mass of brainwaves. But that is not all. They also need to know which conditions can be improved by activating certain genes in particular parts of the body. Another issue is more mundane. Over time, implants get covered with fibrotic scar tissue, which would hamper the release of any proteins from the implant.

“It may be that you have a fresh implant in the fridge of your local physician and have your one replaced every four months,” Fussenegger said.