Biomimetic Coating

About

Background Implantable neural electrode arrays for neural recording and stimulation have demonstrated tremendous research and clinical potential. Their clinical translation has been hindered by the unreliable performance (recording or stimulation) due to reactive tissue responses. In general, the yield (percentage of channels that record single unit activity) is low, the signal recorded is unstable, and signal to noise ratio deteriorates over time. Technology Description Investigators at the University of Pittsburgh have discovered that by coating the surface of neural probes with a neural adhesion molecule isolated from brain tissue, neuronal density is promoted while glial reaction is attenuated. Meanwhile, neural recording quality is drastically improved with remarkably high unit amplitude and unit yield across weeks and months. Applications -Obtaining stable brain activity read out with high sensitivity is critical for many clinical applications as well as basic neuroscience research, such as: 1. Neural prosthesis 2. Brain machine interface (BMI) or brain computer interface (BCI) -Minimizing tissue response is necessary for other neural implant devices, such as: 1. Drug delivery devices 2. Implantable sensors for detecting glucose, neurochemicals, cytokines, etc. 3. Microdialysis for clinical investigation and research applications Advantages -No coating in the literature has demonstrated the recording improvement of similar scale. -Approximate 8 fold increase in the yield and more than double the amplitude of signal with the coating. -Neural recordings have increased quality over time.