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In
collaboration with Prof. Ted Berger's group in
Biomedical Engineering, focused on the development
of cortical prosthesis based upon silicon microelectronic
chips that can mimic the memory function lost
due to damaged hippocampal area, we are exploring
the issues pertaining to the long-term biocompatibility
of these electrode surfaces. Our aim is to render
bio-mimetic the non-conducting surfaces (such
as glass, alumina) of the cortical prosthetic
device through controlled adsorption of organic
bi-linker molecules that induce the attachment
and growth of hippocampal neuronal cells such
as neurons and glia.
Our strategy employs
controlled adsorption of specific neuronal cells
through modification of the prosthetic surface
by designed organic, self-assembling, bi-linkers
that at one end bind covalently (and thus strongly,
for mechanical stability) to the prosthesis surface
and at the other end contain specific cell receptor
recognition peptide in a conformation that enables
adsorption of specific neuronal cells through
receptor-ligand recognition and binding.
Towards this goal, we
have worked on modifying the substrates of glass
and alumina substrates biochemically with SAMs
followed by peptides that mimic the rat hippocampal
neuron and glia cell adhesion molecule (CAM).
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