Description du projet
Des implants neuronaux intelligents pour le traitement de l’épilepsie
Comprendre la fonction et la communication neuronales du cerveau est fondamental pour la conception de traitements contre les troubles neurologiques tels que l’épilepsie. L’optogénétique, une méthode récemment mise au point, a ouvert la voie à la modulation de l’activité neuronale par le biais de la lumière. Toutefois, les défis techniques empêchent encore l’exploitation de cette technique dans des essais cliniques de maladies cérébrales. Le projet WiseCure, financé par l’UE, entend développer des implants neuronaux composés de polymères biocompatibles flexibles pouvant être utilisés pour traiter l’épilepsie par l’optogénétique. Cette approche permettra de suivre et de contrôler sans fil les activités neuronales par le biais des implants, offrant ainsi une solution intelligente de soins de santé pour le traitement de l’épilepsie.
Objectif
This WiseCure Fellowship aims to bring novel wireless, scalable, MRI-compatible, and bio-integrated neural implants for optogenetics to treat epilepsy. Neurological diseases such as epilepsy is a life-threatening progressive disorder causing uncontrolled activity of the brain (seizure). The ability to decipher brain functions and understand the neuronal communication networking properties to develop innovative solutions to treat neurological diseases remains one of the biggest challenges to date. A recent approach to study the brain is optogenetics. Optogenetics is a neural modulation technique which utilizes light to stimulate genetically engineered neurons, providing a better option for controlling the cells compared to conventional electrical stimulation. Scientists pursuing optogenetic therapies still face some technical challenges (e.g. size and multifunctional capability, biointegration, wireless capability, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) compatibility) that keeping optogenetics from clinical trials for brain diseases. I will combine the innovative wireless power transfer (WPT) approaches with ultrathin, soft and flexible biocompatible polymeric platforms to fabricate and characterize neural implants that are small enough to promote scalability, chronic reliability, and MRI compatibility. By associating the ability to wirelessly monitor (e.g. neural activities) and control (stimulation or inhibition) through these neural implants using a smartphone establishes a novel approach for versatile optogenetics to treat epilepsy. This Fellowship will act as a platform to realize my futuristic vision by integrating the wireless optogenetics system into smart healthcare using mobile and electronic technology for better diagnosis of the brain diseases, improved treatment of the patients, and enhanced quality of lives.
Champ scientifique
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicineneurologyepilepsy
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringinformation engineeringtelecommunicationsmobile phones
- engineering and technologymedical engineeringdiagnostic imagingmagnetic resonance imaging
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringinformation engineeringtelecommunicationsradio technology
- medical and health sciencesmedical biotechnologyimplants
Programme(s)
Régime de financement
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinateur
G12 8QQ Glasgow
Royaume-Uni