Smart Brain Interfaces for Diagnostic and Therapeutic Applications : A Multidisciplinary Approach

新兴的医学微系统技术具有创造智能大脑接口(SBI)的潜力，以增强我们对大脑皮质内组织和认知功能和病理基础上的神经活动的理解，并使基于神经细胞的诊断和治疗更接近现实。可植入的SBI可以记录大脑皮层中大量细胞的信号，并监测神经递质的行为和细胞间的移位。 尽管在建立这种生物界面方面取得了重大进展，但还需要进一步协同创新技术，以实时评估神经生物学数据、可靠地诊断功能障碍和有效的治疗程序。在这项研究计划中，我们将重点放在旨在与神经细胞交互的BioDevices的设计和实现上，包括收集能量为这些植入物供电的方法，以及用于与特定外部基站双向交换数据的其他无线链路。它还包括用于连接神经组织的微电极阵列。此外，我们计划特别关注用于体外记录和刺激培养的神经细胞的芯片上实验室(LoC)设备的开发。这种类型的生物界面正在成为一种必要，避免呼吁动物和人类验证已实现的SBI。 建议的生物设备将优先考虑两个主要应用：1)旨在为盲人恢复视力的初级视觉皮质感知和刺激，2)癫痫发作的检测和治疗。这些贡献还将使西方老龄化人口在恢复神经功能障碍方面面临几个医学挑战。 如果成功，这种具有挑战性的举措无疑将推动生物医学和神经科学领域的最先进水平。依靠这种非凡的创新能力，我们的项目致力于创造社会财富，并为壮大加拿大高科技产业做出贡献。

Emerging medical microsystem technologies have the potential to create smart brain interfaces (SBIs) to enhance our understanding of intracortical organization and neural activity underlying cognitive functions and pathologies, and bring neural cell-based diagnostics and therapy closer to reality. An implantable SBI allows recording signals from a large number of cells in the cerebral cortex and monitoring neurotransmitters behavior and displacement among cells. Despite significant progresses in building such biointerfaces, further synergism of innovative techniques are needed for real-time assessment of neurobiological data, reliable diagnostics of dysfunctions and efficient treatment procedures. We focus in this research program on the design, and implementation of biodevices intended to interact with the neural cells, including harvesting energy methods to power up these implants, and other wireless links used to bidirectionally exchange data with specific external base stations. It includes also the microelectrode arrays used to interface the neural tissues. In addition, we are planning to pay special attention to the development of Lab-on-Chip (LoC) devices for in-vitro recording and stimulation of cultured neural cells. This type of biointerface is becoming a necessity avoiding calling upon animal and human to validate achieved SBIs. Priority of proposed biodevices will be given to two main applications: 1) primary visual cortex sensing and stimulation intended to recover vision for the blind, and 2) epileptic seizures onset detection and treatment. These contributions will also enable several medical challenges in restoring neural dysfunctions in aging western population. If successful, such challenging initiative should undoubtedly advance the state of the art in biomedical and neuroscience fields. Counting on this remarkable capacity to innovate, our program is devoted to generate social wealth and contribute to strengthen Canadian hi-tech industry.