Application of Nanoarray Technologies to Spinal Stimulation and Regeneration: the Nano-BMI (brain-machine interface)

Student: Sucharita Saha
Department: Biology
Advisor: Donald O’Malley

Abstract

Figure 1: Primary culture morphology of E18 rat hippocampal neurons at 5 days in culture on glass slides.

Figure 1: Primary culture morphology of E18 rat hippocampal neurons at 5 days in culture on glass slides.

The purpose of this project is to design a nanowire interface to study the electrical properties of biological cells and tissues. The long term goal in fabricating this device, will be to evaluate the use of nanowire arrays to stimulate spinal regeneration and elicit locomotor movements in spinal-injured larval zebrafish. Prior to testing nanowire implants in zebrafish, we will perform validation experiments on cultured cell lines that will establish effective nanowire, and nanowire array, dimensions for both the recording and stimulation of neural activity.

This work will allow us to directly test the efficacy of nanoscale brain-machine interfaces inside a vertebrate animal where we can visualize both the array and the surrounding neural networks with high-resolution. Testing the performance characteristics of such in vivo arrays, for both recording and stimulation, is an essential first step towards the use of nano-BMIs in the repair of the damaged
central nervous system.