Flexible Carbon Nanotube Microelectrode Array for Stimulation of Retinal Tissue

Project: Research

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Description

A wide range of health problems can be treated by stimulation of the nervous system,including hearing loss, chronic pain, and Parkinson’s disease. Recently, an implantabledevice (Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System) has been clinically approved, in US and inEurope, to treat blindness due to retinal degeneration. The major blinding disease suchas retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is caused by the degeneration of photoreceptors, affecting 1in 1000 for a total of 1.3 million individuals in China (Xu et al 2006). Vision could bepartially restored by electrically stimulating the remaining intact cells with neuralelectrodes, in a way that resemble the signals that a healthy retina would transmit to thebrain. The development of neural prosthetic devices for recording and stimulation isinevitably advanced by micro or nano scale electronics technology. Neural electrodes area rapidly growing field in neural interfacing and have significantly improved the qualityof life for people suffered from neurological disorders and injuries. Safe stimulation is acritical consideration in successful neural electrodes design. Platinum, iridium oxide, andalloys of these metals are commonly used materials for neural stimulation. Recently,carbon nanotubes (CNTs) become excellent candidates for interfacing with neuralsystems due to their extraordinary strength, electrical conductivity and large surfacearea. The early studies focused on fabricating CNT-based electrodes on rigid siliconsubstrate for neuronal recording and stimulation. Recent reports indicate the possibilityto fabricate CNT-based electrodes on a flexible polymer substrate for neuronalrecording. Few studies have focused on neural stimulation using CNT-based electrodeson a polymer substrate. We propose a novel study to develop a CNT-basedmicroelectrode array on a flexible substrate for stimulation of retinal tissue followed byelectrophysiological measurements in a rodent model. In the first part of the study, wewill fabricate a CNT-based microelectrode array on a polymer substrate.Characterization of the electrodes will be conducted to evaluate the electrical propertiesby electrochemical methods. In the second part of the study, biocompatibility and safelimits for stimulation will be studied by implanting the CNT-based microelectrode arrayin a rodent model’s visual system. This study will provide information on using CNTs aselectrode materials for stimulation of retinal tissue and other biological tissues. Electrodeefficiency and biocompatible stimulation will lead to an overall more efficient and safeneural prosthetic device.

Detail(s)

Project number9042023
Grant typeGRF
StatusFinished
Effective start/end date1/01/1518/12/18

    Research areas

  • Neural stimulation,microelectrodes,retina,retinal prostheses,