Nanotechnology Now

Our NanoNews Digest Sponsors
Heifer International



Home > Press > 'Neuron-reading' nanowires could accelerate development of drugs for neurological diseases

This is a colorized SEM image of a neuron (orange) interfaced with the nanowire array.
CREDIT
Integrated Electronics and Biointerfaces Laboratory, UC San Diego
This is a colorized SEM image of a neuron (orange) interfaced with the nanowire array. CREDIT Integrated Electronics and Biointerfaces Laboratory, UC San Diego

Abstract:
A team led by engineers at the University of California San Diego has developed nanowires that can record the electrical activity of neurons in fine detail. The new nanowire technology could one day serve as a platform to screen drugs for neurological diseases and could enable researchers to better understand how single cells communicate in large neuronal networks.

'Neuron-reading' nanowires could accelerate development of drugs for neurological diseases

San Diego, CA | Posted on April 12th, 2017

"We're developing tools that will allow us to dig deeper into the science of how the brain works," said Shadi Dayeh, an electrical engineering professor at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering and the team's lead investigator.

"We envision that this nanowire technology could be used on stem-cell-derived brain models to identify the most effective drugs for neurological diseases," said Anne Bang, director of cell biology at the Conrad Prebys Center for Chemical Genomics at the Sanford Burnham Medical Research Institute.

The project was a collaborative effort between the Dayeh and Bang labs, neurobiologists at UC San Diego, and researchers at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and Sandia National Laboratories. The researchers published their work Apr. 10 in Nano Letters.

Researchers can uncover details about a neuron's health, activity and response to drugs by measuring ion channel currents and changes in its intracellular potential, which is due to the difference in ion concentration between the inside and outside of the cell. The state-of-the-art measurement technique is sensitive to small potential changes and provides readings with high signal-to-noise ratios. However, this method is destructive -- it can break the cell membrane and eventually kill the cell. It is also limited to analyzing only one cell at a time, making it impractical for studying large networks of neurons, which are how they are naturally arranged in the body.

"Existing high sensitivity measurement techniques are not scalable to 2D and 3D tissue-like structures cultured in vitro," Dayeh said. "The development of a nanoscale technology that can measure rapid and minute potential changes in neuronal cellular networks could accelerate drug development for diseases of the central and peripheral nervous systems."

The nanowire technology developed in Dayeh's laboratory is nondestructive and can simultaneously measure potential changes in multiple neurons -- with the high sensitivity and resolution achieved by the current state of the art.

The device consists of an array of silicon nanowires densely packed on a small chip patterned with nickel electrode leads that are coated with silica. The nanowires poke inside cells without damaging them and are sensitive enough to measure small potential changes that are a fraction of or a few millivolts in magnitude. Researchers used the nanowires to record the electrical activity of neurons that were isolated from mice and derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells. These neurons survived and continued functioning for at least six weeks while interfaced with the nanowire array in vitro.

Another innovative feature of this technology is it can isolate the electrical signal measured by each individual nanowire. "This is unusual in existing nanowire technologies, where several wires are electrically shorted together and you cannot differentiate the signal from every single wire," Dayeh said.

To overcome this hurdle, researchers invented a new wafer bonding approach to fuse the silicon nanowires to the nickel electrodes. Their approach involved a process called silicidation, which is a reaction that binds two solids (silicon and another metal) together without melting either material. This process prevents the nickel electrodes from liquidizing, spreading out and shorting adjacent electrode leads.

Silicidation is usually used to make contacts to transistors, but this is the first time it is being used to do patterned wafer bonding, Dayeh said. "And since this process is used in semiconductor device fabrication, we can integrate versions of these nanowires with CMOS electronics." Dayeh's laboratory holds several pending patent applications for this technology.

Dayeh noted that the technology needs further optimization for brain-on-chip drug screening. His team is working to extend the application of the technology to heart-on-chip drug screening for cardiac diseases and in vivo brain mapping, which is still several years away due to significant technological and biological challenges that the researchers need to overcome. "Our ultimate goal is to translate this technology to a device that can be implanted in the brain."

###

A patent is pending for this technology. Contact Skip Cynar in the campus Innovation and Commercialization Office at or (858) 822-2672 for licensing information.

This work was supported by a National Science Foundation CAREER award (ECCS-1351980). The team also acknowledges support from the Center for Brain Activity Mapping at UC San Diego, a Calit2 Strategic Research Opportunities award (CITD137) from the Qualcomm Institute at UC San Diego, a Laboratory Directed Research and Development Exploratory Research Award (LDRD-ER) from Los Alamos National Laboratory, the National Institutes of Health (R21 MH099082), a March of Dimes award and a UC San Diego Frontiers of Innovation Scholar Program award. This work was performed in part at UC San Diego's Nanotechnology Infrastructure, a member of the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure, which is supported by the National Science Foundation (grant ECCS-1542148).

####

For more information, please click here

Contacts:
Liezel Labios

858-246-1124

Copyright © University of California, San Diego

If you have a comment, please Contact us.

Issuers of news releases, not 7th Wave, Inc. or Nanotechnology Now, are solely responsible for the accuracy of the content.

Bookmark:
Delicious Digg Newsvine Google Yahoo Reddit Magnoliacom Furl Facebook

Related Links

Full paper: "High Density Individually Addressable Nanowire Arrays Record Activity from Primary Rodent and Human Stem Cell Derived Neurons." Authors of the study are Ren Liu, Renjie Chen, Ahmed T. E. Youssef, Sang Heon Lee, Massoud L. Khraiche, John Scott, Yoontae Hwang, Atsunori Tanaka, Yun Goo Ro, Albert K. Matsushita, Xing Dai, Yimin Zhou and Shadi A. Dayeh of UC San Diego; Sandy Hinckley, Deborah Pre, Steven Biesmans and Anne G. Bang of Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute; Cesare Soci of Nanyang Technological University; and Anthony James, John Nogan, Katherine L. Jungjohann, Douglas V. Pete and Denise B. Webb of Sandia National Laboratories.:

Related News Press

News and information

Researchers develop artificial building blocks of life March 8th, 2024

How surface roughness influences the adhesion of soft materials: Research team discovers universal mechanism that leads to adhesion hysteresis in soft materials March 8th, 2024

Two-dimensional bimetallic selenium-containing metal-organic frameworks and their calcinated derivatives as electrocatalysts for overall water splitting March 8th, 2024

Curcumin nanoemulsion is tested for treatment of intestinal inflammation: A formulation developed by Brazilian researchers proved effective in tests involving mice March 8th, 2024

Brain-Computer Interfaces

Developing nanoprobes to detect neurotransmitters in the brain: Researchers synthesize fluorescent molecularly imprinted polymer nanoparticles to sense small neurotransmitter molecules and understand how they govern brain activity March 3rd, 2023

Taking salt out of the water equation October 7th, 2022

Development of dendritic-network-implementable artificial neurofiber transistors: Transistors with a fibrous architecture similar to those of neurons are capable of forming artificial neural networks. Fibrous networks can be used in smart wearable devices and robots September 24th, 2021

New brain-like computing device simulates human learning: Researchers conditioned device to learn by association, like Pavlov's dog April 30th, 2021

Govt.-Legislation/Regulation/Funding/Policy

What heat can tell us about battery chemistry: using the Peltier effect to study lithium-ion cells March 8th, 2024

Researchers’ approach may protect quantum computers from attacks March 8th, 2024

The Access to Advanced Health Institute receives up to $12.7 million to develop novel nanoalum adjuvant formulation for better protection against tuberculosis and pandemic influenza March 8th, 2024

Optically trapped quantum droplets of light can bind together to form macroscopic complexes March 8th, 2024

Chip Technology

New chip opens door to AI computing at light speed February 16th, 2024

HKUST researchers develop new integration technique for efficient coupling of III-V and silicon February 16th, 2024

Electrons screen against conductivity-killer in organic semiconductors: The discovery is the first step towards creating effective organic semiconductors, which use significantly less water and energy, and produce far less waste than their inorganic counterparts February 16th, 2024

NRL discovers two-dimensional waveguides February 16th, 2024

Nanomedicine

High-tech 'paint' could spare patients repeated surgeries March 8th, 2024

Researchers develop artificial building blocks of life March 8th, 2024

Curcumin nanoemulsion is tested for treatment of intestinal inflammation: A formulation developed by Brazilian researchers proved effective in tests involving mice March 8th, 2024

The Access to Advanced Health Institute receives up to $12.7 million to develop novel nanoalum adjuvant formulation for better protection against tuberculosis and pandemic influenza March 8th, 2024

Discoveries

What heat can tell us about battery chemistry: using the Peltier effect to study lithium-ion cells March 8th, 2024

Researchers’ approach may protect quantum computers from attacks March 8th, 2024

High-tech 'paint' could spare patients repeated surgeries March 8th, 2024

Nanoscale CL thermometry with lanthanide-doped heavy-metal oxide in TEM March 8th, 2024

Announcements

What heat can tell us about battery chemistry: using the Peltier effect to study lithium-ion cells March 8th, 2024

Curcumin nanoemulsion is tested for treatment of intestinal inflammation: A formulation developed by Brazilian researchers proved effective in tests involving mice March 8th, 2024

The Access to Advanced Health Institute receives up to $12.7 million to develop novel nanoalum adjuvant formulation for better protection against tuberculosis and pandemic influenza March 8th, 2024

Nanoscale CL thermometry with lanthanide-doped heavy-metal oxide in TEM March 8th, 2024

Interviews/Book Reviews/Essays/Reports/Podcasts/Journals/White papers/Posters

Researchers develop artificial building blocks of life March 8th, 2024

How surface roughness influences the adhesion of soft materials: Research team discovers universal mechanism that leads to adhesion hysteresis in soft materials March 8th, 2024

Curcumin nanoemulsion is tested for treatment of intestinal inflammation: A formulation developed by Brazilian researchers proved effective in tests involving mice March 8th, 2024

Nanoscale CL thermometry with lanthanide-doped heavy-metal oxide in TEM March 8th, 2024

Patents/IP/Tech Transfer/Licensing

Getting drugs across the blood-brain barrier using nanoparticles March 3rd, 2023

Study finds nanomedicine targeting lymph nodes key to triple negative breast cancer treatment: In mice, nanomedicine can remodel the immune microenvironment in lymph node and tumor tissue for long-term remission and lung tumor elimination in this form of metastasized breast cance May 13th, 2022

Metasurfaces control polarized light at will: New research unlocks the hidden potential of metasurfaces August 13th, 2021

Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals Announces Closing of Agreement with Takeda November 27th, 2020

Grants/Sponsored Research/Awards/Scholarships/Gifts/Contests/Honors/Records

Discovery of new Li ion conductor unlocks new direction for sustainable batteries: University of Liverpool researchers have discovered a new solid material that rapidly conducts lithium ions February 16th, 2024

$900,000 awarded to optimize graphene energy harvesting devices: The WoodNext Foundation's commitment to U of A physicist Paul Thibado will be used to develop sensor systems compatible with six different power sources January 12th, 2024

Catalytic combo converts CO2 to solid carbon nanofibers: Tandem electrocatalytic-thermocatalytic conversion could help offset emissions of potent greenhouse gas by locking carbon away in a useful material January 12th, 2024

'Sudden death' of quantum fluctuations defies current theories of superconductivity: Study challenges the conventional wisdom of superconducting quantum transitions January 12th, 2024

Nanobiotechnology

High-tech 'paint' could spare patients repeated surgeries March 8th, 2024

Researchers develop artificial building blocks of life March 8th, 2024

Curcumin nanoemulsion is tested for treatment of intestinal inflammation: A formulation developed by Brazilian researchers proved effective in tests involving mice March 8th, 2024

The Access to Advanced Health Institute receives up to $12.7 million to develop novel nanoalum adjuvant formulation for better protection against tuberculosis and pandemic influenza March 8th, 2024

NanoNews-Digest
The latest news from around the world, FREE




  Premium Products
NanoNews-Custom
Only the news you want to read!
 Learn More
NanoStrategies
Full-service, expert consulting
 Learn More











ASP
Nanotechnology Now Featured Books




NNN

The Hunger Project