Engineering of Stretchable Neural Interfaces Using Liquid Metals for Stable Electrical Communication and Adaptive Stiffness Transformation

使用液态金属实现稳定电通信和自适应刚度变换的可拉伸神经接口工程

• 批准号: 10666925
• 负责人: Tingyi Liu
• 金额: $ 19.19万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-08-01 至 2026-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10666925
• 关键词: Address; Alloys; Behavior; Biological; Biological Sciences; Biology; Biomedical Engineering; Body Temperature; Brain; Brain Diseases; Brain imaging; Cerebrospinal Fluid; Chronic; Clinical; Collaborations; Communication; Conflict (Psychology); Data; Development; Devices; Disease; Elastomers; Electronics; Engineering; Environment; Face; Failure; Foreign Bodies; Gallium; Geometry; Goals; Hydrogels; Imaging Techniques; Immune response; Implant; In Vitro; Inflammatory; Inflammatory Response; Innovative Therapy; Intelligence; Interdisciplinary Study; Knowledge; Liquid substance; Longitudinal Studies; Mechanics; Medical; Melting Point Temperatures; Metals; Methodology; Mission; Monitor; Motion; Mus; Nanotechnology; Nature; Nervous System; Neurons; Neurosciences; Neurosciences Research; Organism; Penetration; Performance; Physics; Physiological; Polymers; Positioning Attribute; Property; Public Health; Regenerative Medicine; Research; Research Design; Resolution; Role; Signal Transduction; Silicon; System; Techniques; Technology; Time; Tissues; United States National Institutes of Health; Work; bioelectronics; biomaterial compatibility; brain circuitry; brain computer interface; brain tissue; density; design; disability; elastomeric; electric impedance; experience; flexibility; hard metal; implantation; in silico; in vitro Model; in vivo; in vivo Model; innovation; insight; instrumentation; interfacial; kinematics; manufacture; melting; multi-electrode arrays; nanofabrication; nervous system disorder; neural; neural implant; neuronal circuitry; next generation; operation; phase change; response; solid state; spatiotemporal; success; technology platform

PROJECT SUMMARY After decades of using implantable neural probes with implantable multielectrode arrays for medical studies, the exact failure mechanisms of these implants still remain to be fully understood. However, more and more studies have shown that minimizing the mismatches between the soft biological tissue and bioelectronic devices would be a key to achieving long-term, accurate, real-time, and large-scale neural recordings and stimulations without inflammatory immune responses. To mitigate the mechanical mismatch found in hard metal or silicon probes, soft neural probes that are both flexible and stretchable have been developed in recent years. However, bioelectronics on current soft probes has fundamental limits in the stability of their electrochemical impedance under physiological conditions, resulting in a compromise between electronic performance and mechanical matching. The long-term goal is to create a next-generation brain-computer interface (BCI) for advancement in biology, neuroscience, biomedical engineering, and regenerative medicine. The overall objective of this application is to elucidate the design rules to enable electronic-tissue interfaces with reliable electrochemical impedance, tunable mechanical stiffness, using an approach that combines two unique material types – nontoxic liquid metals and biocompatible elastomers. The central hypothesis is that a combination of low-melting-point nontoxic gallium-based liquid metals and intrinsically stretchable polymers will synergistically enhance the electrical, and mechanical interfacial properties in the biological environment and provide unified interfaces for multifunctional integrated systems with embodied intelligence. The successful completion of this research will result in significant advances in the methodology of liquid-metal-embedded soft neural probes. The rationale underlying the proposed research is that the successful development of a truly stretchable and reliable probe-tissue interface offers neuroscientists an unprecedented platform technology to design specific neural probes to investigate fundamental life science questions that were unexplorable before, such as “how neuronal circuits are formed during brain development” where high-density high-resolution stretchable neural probes are needed as a mammalian brain may grow more than 100% in size and add vast amounts of new tissue and resulting new functions. The proposed research is innovative, because it departs from both the conventional and existing neuroscientific instrumentations and introduces a new framework for next-generation neural probe systems using low-melting-point metals and soft polymers. The proposed research is transformative because it will enable “invisible” brain-computer interfaces (BCI) to provide fundamental insights into the underlying physics of brain circuitry formation and functionality. Ultimately, such knowledge paves the way for us to understand the brain and ourselves better, offers new opportunities for finding the origin of intelligence, and invites new solutions for the development of innovative therapies to treat brain disorders.

项目概要 经过数十年使用带有植入式多电极阵列的植入式神经探针进行医学研究， 然而，这些植入物的确切失效机制仍有待充分了解。 研究表明，最大限度地减少软生物组织和生物电子之间的不匹配 设备将是实现长期、准确、实时和大规模神经记录的关键 没有炎症免疫反应的刺激，以减轻硬体中发现的机械失配。 金属或硅探针，柔性和可拉伸的软神经探针已在 然而，近年来，当前软探针的生物电子学在其稳定性方面存在根本限制。 生理条件下的电化学阻抗，导致电子之间的折衷 性能和机械匹配的长期目标是创建下一代脑机。 促进生物学、神经科学、生物医学工程和再生领域进步的接口（BCI） 该应用程序的总体目标是阐明实现电子组织的设计规则。 具有可靠电化学阻抗、可调机械刚度的接口，使用的方法 结合了两种独特的材料类型——无毒液态金属和生物相容性弹性体。 假设是低熔点无毒镓基液态金属和本质上的组合 可拉伸聚合物将协同增强电气和机械界面性能 生物环境，为多功能集成系统提供统一的接口 这项研究的成功完成将导致方法论的重大进步。 液态金属嵌入式软神经探针的研究的基本原理是 真正可拉伸且可靠的探针-组织界面的成功开发为神经科学家提供了 前所未有的平台技术来设计特定的神经探针来研究基础生命科学 以前无法探索的问题，例如“大脑中的神经回路是如何形成的” 作为哺乳动物，需要高密度高分辨率可拉伸神经探针的“发育” 大脑的大小可能会增长超过 100%，并增加大量新组织和由此产生的新功能。 所提出的研究具有创新性，因为它不同于传统的和现有的研究 神经科学仪器并引入了下一代神经探针系统的新框架 使用低熔点金属和软聚合物这项研究具有变革性，因为它将 使“隐形”脑机接口（BCI）能够提供对底层的基本见解 最终，这些知识为我们铺平了道路。 更好地了解大脑和我们自己，为寻找智力的起源提供新的机会，并且 邀请新的解决方案来开发治疗脑部疾病的创新疗法。