Interfacing with neural tissues continues to be a significant goal for the control and understanding of cellular processes, and for combating nervous-system related diseases (e.g. chronic pain, diabetes, etc.). Among them, retinal degeneration diseases are remarkably difficult to treat. A high-level of design, control and realization capability of these neural interfaces is key to solving these challenging problems, which remain unsolved with current technologies.
The outer retina diseases, such as retinitis pigmentosa, Stargardt’s disease, etc. cause irreversible blindness due to the death of rods and cones. Additionally, age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of severe vision loss in Western societies and affect around 37 million people worldwide. These diseases generate significant life-quality reductions for patients and their families, and limit social interactions and independence. Furthermore, they cause billions of dollars of economic losses including medical costs, other direct costs, and productivity losses. The personal health, societal and economic impact of these diseases will only worsen due to the aging of the European population. Therefore, treatments of outer retina diseases are strongly emphasized by European Technology Platform for photonics, Photonics21. To this end, the health, societal and economic impact of these diseases motivated our research.
Nanotechnology has a significant potential for the development of new neural interfaces. The atomic-level design and control of the nanostructures for neural interfacing can revolutionize the junction between neurons and nanomaterials. In this project, we proposed a totally new approach for understanding fundamental requirements and from this knowledge designing customised nanomaterials with optimised characteristics. These were used to develop and demonstrate unconventional neural interfaces that are ultimately designed, controlled and constructed at the nanoscale. Hence, the key objectives of this proposal were: (1) to use quantum mechanics in a new way to control and explore the neural photostimulation mechanism, (2) to explore, design and synthesize new biocompatible colloidal nanocrystals for neural photostimulation, to overcome the limitations in terms of toxic material contents (e.g. cadmium, lead, mercury, etc.), (3) to demonstrate novel biocompatible neural interfaces with exciton and quantum funnels, and plasmonic nanostructures for enhanced spectral sensitivity and dynamic range. This new approach from quantum mechanical design to nanocrystal assembly enabled exploring, tuning and controlling the underlying physical mechanisms of neural photostimulation. Furthermore, the biocompatible nanomaterials resulted in a more reliable nanobiojunction. The funnel and plasmon structures led to unprecedented spectral sensitivities and dynamic ranges that were far beyond the state-of-the-art optoelectronic interfaces. The project did high impact on diverse fields such as bioelectronics, nanomaterials, and neurotechnology, and led a new paradigm in neural interfacing.
