CAREER: Soft, biocompatible ion-based transistors for responsive neuroelectronic devices

生物电子设备对人类健康有许多潜在的好处，从家庭健康监测到神经精神疾病的诊断和治疗。然而，这些设备的安全和有效使用受到刚性、非生物兼容的电子元件的限制，这些电子元件必须结合在一起才能执行所需的功能。该项目旨在研究如何利用柔软和完全生物相容的材料直接与来自身体的信号相互作用，而不损害组织。由这些材料制成的晶体管将被用来创建生物电子设备获取和调节大脑中神经元活动所需的电路。这项研究的结果将通过改进目前用于癫痫或帕金森氏症等疾病患者的生物电子设备的设计而造福社会，因为它消除了在体内植入笨重或刚性材料的需要。该项目还将有助于理解人体和电子设备之间相互作用的基本原理。这个项目的教育部分利用离子门控晶体管作为生物兼容的低成本组件，用于教授生物电子设备设计原理的学生和教育工作者项目。这些项目将保存在一个全面的数据库中，以便于向教育工作者和外联协调员传播，提供以证据为基础的方法，以更广泛地改进生物电子学方面的基于项目的学习。该项目的教育目标是为学生和教育工作者提供实践机会，以设计和测试简单的、生物兼容的生物电子设备。这些努力将增加学校对工程方法的接触，并激发人们对生物电子学的兴趣，以造福健康。开发集生物兼容性、离子转导、高速和在生理环境中可靠运行于一体的生物电子元件的需求巨大。该项目的目标是开发离子驱动的、可整合的、可植入的生物电子设备，以实现与神经电路的有效交互。中心假设是，离子门控晶体管将有效地与神经信号相互作用，因为它们可以直接转换大脑的离子通量，并足以创建完全可植入的、软的、不需要严格封装的闭环系统所需的集成电路。这项研究涉及到由离子门控晶体管组成的集成电路的制造，包括全面的体外实验和基于模型的表征，这些参数控制着它们在生理环境中的运行。然后，这些设备被用来调整癫痫动物体内模型的神经网络，并从人类受试者那里获得神经生理学数据。这项研究的基本原理是，此类设备的实现将改变生物电子设备的设计，有可能增强神经精神疾病的诊断和治疗。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Bioelectronic devices have numerous potential benefits to human health, from in-home wellness monitoring to diagnosis and treatment of neuropsychiatric diseases. However, safe and effective use of these devices is limited by the rigid, non-biocompatible electronic components that must be incorporated to allow execution of the required functions. This project seeks to study how soft and fully biocompatible materials can be leveraged to interact directly with signals from the body without damaging tissue. A transistor fabricated from these materials will be used to create the circuits necessary for bioelectronic devices to acquire and modulate the activity of neurons in the brain. The outcome of the research will benefit society by improving the design of bioelectronic devices currently used for patients with conditions such as epilepsy or Parkinson's disease by eliminating the need for implantation of bulky or rigid materials in the body. This project will also facilitate understanding of the principles underlying interactions between the body and electronic devices. The educational component of this project leverages ion-gated transistors as biocompatible and low-cost components to be used in student and educator projects that teach principles of bioelectronic device design. These projects will be maintained in a comprehensive database to facilitate dissemination to educators and outreach coordinators, providing evidence-based methods to improve project-based learning in bioelectronics more broadly. The educational objectives of the project are to provide students and educators with hands-on opportunities to design and test simple, biocompatible bioelectronic devices. These efforts will increase exposure to engineering methods in schools and stimulate interest in bioelectronics to benefit health.There is an enormous need to develop bioelectronic components that can merge biocompatibility, ion transduction, high speed, and reliable operation in physiological environments. The objective of the project is to develop ion-driven, conformable, implantable bioelectronic devices to enable efficient interaction with neural circuits. The central hypothesis is that ion-gated transistors will effectively interact with neural signals because they can directly transduce the brain's ionic flux, and are sufficient to create the integrated circuits required for fully implantable, soft, closed-loop devices that do not require rigid encapsulation. The research involves fabrication of integrated circuits comprised of ion-gated transistors with comprehensive in vitro and modeling-based characterization of the parameters governing their operation in physiologic environments. These devices are then used to modulate neural networks in an in vivo animal model of epilepsy and acquire neurophysiologic data from human subjects. The rationale underlying this research is that realization of such devices will transform design of bioelectronic devices with the potential to enhance diagnosis and therapy for neuropsychiatric disease.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.