On-chip studies of neuron cells under magnetic field stimulation

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Proposal Title: On-chip studies of neuron cells under magnetic field stimulation Brief description of project Goals:This project is to develop a microchip for studying the single neuron cells and their interaction under magnetic field stimulation.Nontechnical Abstract:One in five Americans above the age of 18 suffer from diagnosable neurological disorders and there are 50,000 new cases of Parkinson's disease diagnosed every year in the United States. 10 to 20% of apparently healthy service members returning from conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Therefore there is a critical need to develop new, safe, non-invasive methods for the treatment of deep brain disorders. Non-invasive techniques including repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) have had some success, but progress has been limited because of poor understanding of interaction of magnetic fields with neurons. Basically the molecular/cellular mechanisms of neurons under TMS are still lacking. To address these issues, the scientific and technical component of this project focuses on the investigation of the effect of transient magnetic fields on the neuronal growth rate and synaptic activity, which is essential in developing new treatment procedures for debilitating neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease, PTSD and traumatic brain injury. The education, dissemination and outreach component of this project includes mentoring graduate, undergraduate and underrepresented/minority students, dissemination and outreach to the local community. The overall educational goal is to help next-generation workforce development by training students to carry out research with sound technical background and allowing them to gain hands-on laboratory skills for their advanced careers.Technical Abstract:The proposed project seeks to develop an integrated microchip that allows, for the first time, studying the growth, synaptic activity and regeneration of single neuron cells and interaction among the separated neuron cells under both AC/transcranial magnetic and DC magnetic field stimulation. Specifically, this project focuses on: (i) the development of a new microchip, which consists of microholder arrays with integrated patch-clamp probes to store single neuron cells; (ii) the study of the growth behavior and monitoring of the action potential of single neuron cells (N27 cells and PC12 cells as the models) under AC/transcranial magnetic field stimulation; (iii) the study of the growth behavior of the neuron cells inside a 3D extracellular matrix, mimicking the in vivo environment, under AC/transcranial magnetic field stimulation; and (iv) the study of the guided neuron growth by functionalizing the neuron cells with magnetic nanoparticles (mNPs) under DC and AC/transcranial magnetic field stimulation. This proposed research may help advance fundamental knowledge of growth and regeneration of single neuron cells under the magnetic field stimulation, which might have significant impact on the field of regenerative medicine from both scientific and engineering points of view. This proposed integrated technical platform offers some unique features otherwise unavailable by any other existing platforms, providing the capability for monitoring the behaviors of single neuron cells and the interactions among them. These functions in this platform might help trigger some basic discoveries, some important ideas and innovations for biomedical applications.