NANO NEEDLE BIOELECTRONICS SOFT INTRACELLULAR ELECTRODES FOR MAPPING THE SUB-CELLULAR NEURAL CODE
Abstract
Mammalian brain anatomy spans many orders of magnitude in spatial scale. At each spatial scale, from dendritic spines up to brain-wide networks, neural circuits perform specialized computations that give rise to animal cognition. However, conventional neurotechnologies are often blind to how the brain computes at the subcellular level. Unraveling how fine-scale structures such as dendritic spines, dendrites, and axons endow neural networks with their computational power would unlock vast opportunities for therapeutics, neuroprosthetics, as well as our enhancing our basic understanding of plasticity, attention, perception, learning, and memory. At present however, these fine structures are inaccessible via conventional electrophysiology due to mismatch in size. To alleviate this drawback, we propose to advance a nanoscale metal 3D printing process to build flexible, nanoscale bioelectronic devices that interface with the nervous system with unprecedented precision and resolution. The 3D printer will be based on a state-of-the-art commercial instrument. Our technology will conform to the brain surface as a high-density array of ultra-tall nanoneedles and penetrate into the cortex and gain intracellular access to subcellular structures. Thus, we are enabling high-fidelity recordings of the fundamental physiological processes that govern neural plasticity and shape animal cognition for the very first time. Furthermore, our merging of 3D metal printing and flexible bioelectronics is poised to open up an entirely new generation of neurotechnologies that give unbounded access to record and manipulate neural activity at the nanoscale. The proposed intracellular recording technologies will allow us to directly measure the ion channel distributions, and electrical features of subcellular compartments in 3D tissue environments as well as in vivo animal models overcoming limitations in current electrical recordings. The 3D metal printer will be directly used by 6 PIs with 3 PI’s having active DoD funding (K. Jayant, Chi Hwan Lee (AOARD- FA2386-16-1- 4105; program manager- Dr. Tony Kim; AFOSR- FA2386-18-1-40171; program manager- Dr. Tony Kim), Chopra (USAMRAA award W81XWH2010665; program manager- Dr. Anthony Pacifico), Shi (Co-PI on USAMRAA award W81XWH2010665 to Gaurav Chopra), M. Ward, H. Lee). In addition to the 6 PIs the technologies created by this instrument will have immediate impact and be used by the larger Neuroscience community at Purdue through the Purdue Institute for Integrative Neuroscience which is focused on mapping neural circuitry. The 3D metal printer will enhance our existing capabilities of creating soft 3D neuroelectronics by facilitating sub-cellular electrical and electrochemical recordings across the brain and gut, as well as 3D tissue environments which is critical for mapping how neurons integrate, store, and transmit information at scales where conventional electrophysiology fails.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Mar 07, 2023
- Source ID
- FA95502210078
Entities
People
- Krishna Jayant
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Purdue University
- United States Air Force