CAREER: Adapting Flexible Display Technology for Optogenetic Peripheral Nerve Stimulation

职业：采用柔性显示技术进行光遗传学周围神经刺激

• 批准号: 1554690
• 负责人: Jennifer Blain Christen
• 金额: $ 50万
• 依托单位: Arizona State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-02-01 至 2022-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1554690&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Adapting; Flexible; Display; Technology

Proposal Title: CAREER: Adapting Flexible Display Technology for Optogenetic Peripheral Nerve StimulationProject Goals: The PI will investigate using light from flexible displays to wrap around and stimulate nerves genetically modified to be light sensitive.a) Nontechnical Abstract: Biolelectronic medicine is a new approach to treating diseases by direct stimulation of specific nerves which triggers the body to treat itself without the use of pharmaceuticals. This emerging area of research shows incredible promise for a variety of diseases, but current methods of stimulating individual nerves within a fiber are inaccurate and/or cause damage to the nerve. Optogenetics is a new technique has revolutionized interface with the nervous system by using light to stimulate nerves rather than more traditional electrodes. Light can stimulate a nerve without physically penetrating and damaging the nerve like many electrical stimulation techniques. However the optical stimulation has only been shown with low resolution in two dimensional patterns. This work exploit flexible display technology used in flat panel televisions; a small array will wrap around and stimulate the nerve in a three dimensional configuration. The goal is to simultaneously shine several pixels, each too weak to stimulate, on the nerve to get enough light to activate the nerve where the beams cross. This will give very specific targeting of nerves.In addition, this grant will support the development of a bioelectronics workshop. The workshop will allow students, especially underrepresented minority students, to make their own measurements from the brain of a bug and their own muscles. The students will learn about how these bioelectronics can enable therapeutic and prosthetic technology. b) Technical Abstract:Bioelectronic medicine is a new approach to treating disease by direct stimulation of specific nerves which triggers the body to treat itself without the use of pharmaceuticals. Targeted stimulation of the nervous system can upregulate the body's response to immune deficiency and downregulate its response to autoimmune disease. Traditional nerve stimulation uses electrical stimulation outside of the nerve fiber to target individual axons or groups of axons, but the resolution of this technique is very poor. Squeezing the nerve can improve this resolution but only near the surface. More invasive techniques cut open the nerve and substructures to place extremely fine wires next to the nerves to improve resolution, but this is very invasive and can cause damage. This work leverages a new technique for neural stimulation, optogenetics. Optogenetics is the use of light to stimulate neurons that have been genetically sensitized to specific wavelengths. While this technique has revolutionized neural interface, the implementation has been fairly low resolution and two dimensional.This work uses ultra-thin flat panel display technology wrapped around the sciatic nerve to stimulate motor neurons. This enables a stimulation technique that is non-invasive to the nerve. In addition, it will increase the resolution of stimulation beyond other techniques external to the nerve. Multiple emitters can be used with optical power below the threshold for optogenetic stimulation simultaneously, so the intersection of the emitted light from each of the pixels will be sufficient to stimulate the axon. This should increase the resolution with which stimulation can be targeted within a nerve fiber. The efficacy of the system will be demonstrated using transgenic mice with motor neurons specifically transfected. An arrays of emitters will be wrapped around a mouse sciatic nerve with electromyography (EMG) used to confirm the stimulation.In addition, this grant will support the development of a bioelectronics workshop. The workshop will allow students, especially underrepresented minority students, to make their own neural and EMG recordings. The students will learn about how these bioelectronics interfaces can enable therapeutic and prosthetic technology.

提案标题：职业生涯：将柔性显示技术应用于光遗传外周神经刺激项目目标： PI将研究使用来自柔性显示器的光来缠绕和刺激经基因修饰而具有光敏性的神经。a）非技术性摘要：生物电子医学是一种通过直接刺激特定神经来治疗疾病的新方法，该方法可以触发身体在不使用药物的情况下进行自我治疗。这一新兴的研究领域对各种疾病显示出令人难以置信的前景，但目前刺激纤维内单个神经的方法是不准确的和/或对神经造成损伤。光遗传学是一种新技术，它通过使用光而不是传统的电极来刺激神经，从而彻底改变了神经系统的界面。光可以刺激神经，而不会像许多电刺激技术那样物理地穿透和损伤神经。然而，光刺激仅以二维图案的低分辨率示出。这项工作利用了平板电视中使用的柔性显示技术;一个小阵列将以三维配置缠绕并刺激神经。目标是同时照射几个像素，每个像素都太弱而无法刺激神经，以获得足够的光线来激活光束交叉的神经。这将提供非常具体的神经靶向。此外，这笔赠款将支持一个生物电子研讨会的发展。该研讨会将允许学生，特别是代表性不足的少数族裔学生，对虫子的大脑和自己的肌肉进行自己的测量。学生将了解这些生物电子学如何使治疗和修复技术成为可能。B）技术摘要：生物电子医学是一种通过直接刺激特定神经来治疗疾病的新方法，其触发身体在不使用药物的情况下进行自我治疗。神经系统的靶向刺激可以上调身体对免疫缺陷的反应，并下调其对自身免疫性疾病的反应。传统的神经刺激使用神经纤维外的电刺激来靶向单个轴突或轴突组，但这种技术的分辨率很差。挤压神经可以提高分辨率，但仅限于表面附近。更具侵入性的技术切开神经和亚结构，在神经旁边放置极细的电线以提高分辨率，但这是非常侵入性的，并且可能造成损伤。这项工作利用了一种新的神经刺激技术，光遗传学。光遗传学是利用光来刺激神经元，这些神经元已经对特定的波长敏感。虽然这项技术彻底改变了神经接口，但其实现一直是相当低的分辨率和二维的。这项工作使用超薄平板显示技术包裹在坐骨神经周围来刺激运动神经元。这实现了对神经无创的刺激技术。此外，它将提高刺激的分辨率，超过神经外部的其他技术。多个发射器可以以低于阈值的光功率同时用于光遗传学刺激，因此来自每个像素的发射光的交叉将足以刺激轴突。这应该增加刺激可以在神经纤维内靶向的分辨率。该系统的功效将使用具有运动神经元特异性转染的转基因小鼠来证明。一组发射器将缠绕在老鼠的坐骨神经上，用肌电图（EMG）来确认刺激。此外，这笔赠款将支持生物电子学研讨会的发展。研讨会将允许学生，特别是代表性不足的少数民族学生，使自己的神经和肌电图记录。学生将了解这些生物电子接口如何实现治疗和修复技术。