Periodic Reporting for period 2 - HyVIS (Hybrid synapse for vision)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2022-06-01 al 2023-11-30
This project targets to stimulate neurons with a drastically novel method that can go beyond single cell resolution to recreate lost synaptic connections with "hybrid nanosynapses": surviving retinal neurons will be interfaced with plasmonic nanochannels filled with smart polymers able to release neurotrasmitter in response to optical stimuli.
The main objectives of the project are i) the fabrication of the hybrid synapse and ii) the light-mediated stimulation of primary neurons, retinal explants and retina organoids.
The revolutionary retinal neuroprosthesis may not only improve the life quality of people affected by retinal degeneration diseases, but also have a significant impact on public healthcare systems and society economy.
The HyVIS team succeded in engineering, fabricating and testing the prototypes of retinal prosthesis for a "chemical" stimulation of primary and retinal neurons. Novel photosentive moieties have been synthetized to release neurotransmitter on demand upon illumination, capitalizing on a change of hydrophobicity. Finally, the molecular constructs and virus necessary for a targeted stimulation of retinal neurons have been produced and tested in vitro on cell lines. The next and last part of our project will be focussing on the assembly of the while device and its testing on retinal explants from mice and non-human primates and retinal organoids.