Calendar Details

For more information about item submission and attendance, see About the Technical Calendar.

Tuesday, November 10

Nanostructured Neuroprosthetics

Timothy E. McKnight, Division Staff
Measurement Science and Systems Engineering Division
1:30 PM — 4:30 PM, Weinberg Auditorium (Building 4500-N)
Contact: Kristina Thiagarajan (thiagarajakd@ornl.gov), 865.241.5214

Abstract

Neural prosthetics hold great promise for those impaired by sensory-, motor-, and psychological disabilities. Currently, the FDA has approved only a handful of neuro-prosthetic devices. However, the results of these interventions are inspiring including restoration of hearing to the profoundly deaf and recovery of quality of life for those suffering from advanced Parkinson's tremor. These pathologies are just a small subset of the conditions that neural prosthetics are anticipated to address. Worldwide, it is estimated that over 1.5 billion people suffer from some form of brain or CNS-related illness. Neurotechnology, and specifically the development of advanced neural prosthetics, is therefore perceived as one of the world's largest unmet medical needs.

It is anticipated that materials development will be one of the most critical elements for advancing neuroprosthetic therapies. This seminar will overview the collaborative efforts of several ORNL research groups towards the development of a nanostructured tissue interface that features several unique qualities well suited for neural interfacing. The backbone of this interface is a high aspect ratio electrode material capable of both stimulating and monitoring neural activity with extremely high spatial resolution. In addition to this traditional ‘electrophysiological' coupling, this electrode material also provides for the measurement of localized analytes within tissue, thereby enabling approaches for controlling prosthetic performance based upon feedback of local neurotransmitter concentrations. Finally, one of the most critical factors for prosthetic therapy is minimizing the host tissue's response to the implanted device. Emerging strategies will be discussed whereby the host tissue at the implant interface is reprogrammed and co-opted to support acceptance of the implant via either the production of exogenous diffusible factors or the suppression of response pathways via siRNA strategies.