Assessing the commercial potential of high-density electrodes with single unit recording and stimulation capabilities.

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SF424 – Project Summary Understanding how the brain generates certain behaviors requires an understanding of the function of individual neurons in dynamical neural circuits. Currently, there are few technologies available however that allow researchers to record both the activity within a brain region, and between brain regions in the brains of awake, behaving animals. Recent advances in microelectrode fabrication are now enabling recordings of recording hundreds to thousands of neurons simultaneously across brain regions that will lead to functional analyses of dynamical neural circuits. To date however, there are no commercially available low-cost solutions for these kinds of high-density probes. In addition, available high-density probes do not offer customization in design and layout. Neural Dynamics Technologies develops low-cost, highly customizable, high-density probes for acute and chronic experiments in rodents. These probes are innovative because they rely on a new fabrication process that allows for both customization in probe design and low-cost fabrication. Furthermore, our probes are compatible for integration with existing commercial amplifier systems that are standardly used for both acute and chronic experiments in rodents. The first aim of our SBIR proposal was to streamline the design process of high-density probes such that the fabrication process will be ready to produce a wide variety of probe designs at low cost. The second aim involves streamlining the production methods to enable fabrication of customizable probes with broad compatibility with existing commercial amplifier systems. Currently, the above-mentioned aims of our Phase I proposal are largely achieved, and to prepare for commercialization, we would like to participate in the NIH I-Corps program so that we can determine best product-customer fit for our technology.