Multifunctional nano-bio INterfaces wIth deep braiN reGions

Introduction

Capturing the dynamics of brain activity in its multifaceted components is a key challenge for neural interfaces. Deciphering the complex electrical and chemical signaling exchanged by the different constituents of the brain tissue will result in a better understanding of neural circuits and functions, informing and enabling novel diagnostic and therapeutic approaches.

Research Tools

Next generation of research tools should therefore aim at a multifunctional and fully integrated approach, probing and triggering multiple signals simultaneously with high spatio-temporal resolution and low invasiveness.

Project Aspirations

MINING aspires at generating a novel class of multifunctional neural endoscopes, able to trigger and detect electrical and molecular signaling with cellular resolution in vivo. The result will be the unprecedented ability to correlate multiple types of signals in the same volume, with spatial and temporal resolution at depth.

Overcoming Limitations

The limitation of current state of the art will be surmounted by exploiting light-matter interactions in hybrid metal-dielectric metasurfaces and their synergistic integration with organic electrochemical transistors.

Main Objectives

The main objectives of MINING are:

1. Devise hybrid metal-dielectric metasurface (HMS) neural endoscopes, enabling simultaneous:

   • High-resolution functional imaging of neural signals,
   • Label-free optical monitoring of chemical compounds from both wide and localized brain volumes,
   • Optogenetic and thermoplasmonic modulation of neural functions with cellular resolution.

2. Integration of organic electrochemical transistors on HMS endoscopes, generating a novel optoelectrical neural interface with cellular resolution based on active electronics.

3. Development of methods for spatial-resolved multifunctional studies, to demonstrate the power of MINING endoscopes to reveal so far hidden patterns of electrochemical functional dynamics in the living mouse brain.