Bio-inspired Technologies

伦敦帝国理工学院生物医学工程研究所仿生学小组的研究活动集中在提供基于视网膜、耳蜗、神经元、β细胞等生物行为模型的智能生理半导体芯片。IBE目前的研究重点是生物启发技术领域，这是生物学/生物化学，物理学/工程学和医学之间的交叉学科领域。我们设计与人体器官和系统相互作用的电子系统，以及：根据生物系统的基本原理设计的电子电路和设备。在此，我们提出了一系列可行性研究，这些研究基于应用最先进的工程技术，为复杂的生理和医学问题提供解决方案，例如选择性神经刺激器或植入物。同样，我们正在开发基于复杂生物系统和生化过程的新技术，例如细胞信号传导机制。这项投资将导致研究，这将为几个令人兴奋的新想法提供原理证明；如果成功，它将被商业化开发，并对医疗保健以及某些广泛使用的设备（如手机摄像头或敏感的化学探测器阵列）产生重大影响。可行性帐户将用于一套五个研究主题。第一个主题将探讨将无脊椎动物的光感受器（一个级联的生物放大器）中的光导过程转化为电子等效物的可行性。第二个主题冒险进入一个全新的研究领域的忆阻器-无源存储器件。其他三个主题评估了神经刺激和神经假体设计的新策略路径：结合光学和电刺激来实现选择性，然后使用光合反应中心来赋予神经元和肌肉的光敏感性，最后使用噪音来增强人类听觉通路的感觉知觉。

The research activities of the Bionics group at the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Imperial College London have concentrated on providing intelligent, physiological semiconductor chips based on models of the biological behaviour of the retina, cochlea, neurons, beta-cells, etc. The current research focus at IBE is in the area of bio-inspired technologies, which is a cross-disciplinary field at the interface between biology/biochemistry, physics/engineering and medicine. We design electronic systems that interact with human organs and systems, as well as: electronic circuits and devices designed following the basic principles of biological systems. Here we propose a set of feasibility studies which are based on applying state of the art engineering technologies to provide solutions for intricate physiological and medical problems, such as selective neural stimulators or implants. Equally, we are deriving new technologies based on complex biological systems and biochemical processes, such as cell signalling mechanisms. This investment will lead to research which will provide proof of principle for several exciting new ideas; and if successful will be developed commercially and have a significant impact on healthcare as well as certain widespread devices such as mobile phone cameras, or sensitive chemical detector arrays. The Feasibility Account will be used for a suite of five research themes. The first theme will explore the feasibility of converting the phototransduction process in an invertebrate's photoreceptor - a cascade of biological amplifiers - into electronic equivalents. The second theme ventures into a completely new research field of memristors - passive memory devices. The other three themes assess new strategic paths in neural stimulation and neural prosthesis design: combined optical and electrical stimulation for achieving selectivity, then use of a photosynthetic reaction centre for imparting light sensitivity of neurons and muscles, and eventually the use of noise to enhance sensory perception in human auditory pathways.