Project description
A novel light source for stimulating cells in vivo
Being able to control the behaviour of cells or stimulate them in vivo is an ongoing challenge in biomedical engineering. Organic light-emitting diodes (OLED) constitute good candidates for the production of miniaturised light-emitting devices but cannot be applied in the biomedical context due to structure restrictions. The scope of the EU-funded solLED project is to overcome the limitations of existing OLED technologies and develop an entirely new type of light source. The solution-phase light-emitting device (sol-LED) will be generated in a needle-like shape and implanted into muscles in mice. Researchers will stimulate muscle cells to contract, mimicking native muscle motor function. Results will pave the way for the use of sol-LED in biomedical applications.
Objective
Delivering light deep into tissue is an important open challenge in biomedical engineering, with particular relevance for optogenetics. One feasible solution is the application of miniaturized bio-implantable light-emitting devices. Such devices should be able to adapt to stimulate cells in tissues with different shapes, sizes, stiffness, and mechanical characteristics. OLED is the most successful light application in current display technologies with many advantages but it cannot adapt to the extreme requirement in three-dimensional structures. The limitations come from the multi-layered device architecture and manufacturing process of vacuum evaporation. Here, we propose a radically different device concept, a solution-phase light-emitting device (sol-LED) with a simple structure that can readily adapt various form factors and thus is of particular relevance to novel applications in the biomedical context. The sol-LED consists of electrodes and a solution that adopts the exciplex host-dye guest system. The fabrication is based on the process under liquid-state such as injection and capillary processes to fill the space in pre-formed devices. The proposed sol-LED will take advantage of existing state-of-the-art OLED materials and established OLED device physics and translate them to the liquid state by dissolving solid-state materials in suitable solvents. Apart from developing this entirely novel type of light source, the use of sol-LEDs as light-source for optogenetics will be developed and tested. Sol-LED with a needle-like shape will be produced by injection of the solution into a hollow microneedle. The resulting devices will be implanted into muscles of the posterior thighs of mice. The motor function will then be mimicked by alternating stimulation of the muscle cells responsible for contraction of the left and right legs. With this, we will test if the device can stimulate cells in vivo with constant intensity and frequency despite strong muscle movements.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesneurobiology
- engineering and technologymechanical engineeringmanufacturing engineering
- medical and health sciencesmedical biotechnology
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Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinator
50931 Koln
Germany