Flexible and Transparent Multielectrode Arrays to Study Alzheimer's Pathology in Advanced In-Vitro Disease Models

我们缺乏对神经退行性疾病的了解，加上这些疾病的预计增加可能会增加医疗保健系统的负担（到2050年，全球痴呆症患者超过1.5亿人），导致人们对努力了解它们的紧迫感不断增加。动物和人类生理学之间的差异使研究工作转向新的疾病模型，例如基于诱导多能干细胞（iPSC）的脑类器官。由于其尺寸减小，多电极阵列（MEA）的设计，使详细的表征具有良好的空间和时间分辨率。PEDOT：PSS膜电极具有良好的生物相容性、高导电性和易于设计等优点，具有广阔的应用前景.该项目旨在赋予传统MEA灵活性和透明度等特性，使其与高分辨率显微镜相结合，并使用精确的电生理学和光学测量来研究脑类器官。为了最大限度地减少由其与基于聚合物的MEA的复杂相互作用引起的对生长中的类器官的潜在负面影响，所提出的阵列将提供高孔隙率，这确保类器官通过空气-液体界面实现必要的营养交换，帮助它们无任何问题地生长。然后可以进行进一步的测量，以测量在神经退行性病变期间发生的细胞相互作用。

Our lack of insights into neurodegenerative disorders, coupled with a projected increase in these disorders potentially increasing the load on the healthcare system (over 150 million people worldwide with dementia by 2050) has resulted in a rising sense of urgency towards conducting efforts to understand them. The differences between animal and humanphysiology have shifted the research efforts towards novel disease models, such as brain organoids based on induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC). Due to their reduced dimensions, multielectrode arrays (MEA) are designed to enable detailed characterizations with a good spatial and temporal resolution. PEDOT: PSS MEAs show promising results dueto their biocompatibility, high conductivity and easy to design nature. This project aims at imparting characteristics like flexibility and transparency to traditional MEAs to permit their combination with high-resolution microscopy and enable the study of brain organoids using accurate electrophysiological as well as optical measurements. To minimise potentialnegative effects onto the growing organoid induced by its complex interaction with the polymer-based MEA, the proposed arrays will provide high porosity which ensures that the organoids achieve the necessary nutrition exchange through air-liquid interfaces helping them grow without any issues. Further measurements can then be carried out tomeasure the cellular interactions taking place during neurodegenerative pathology.