Abstract - Drew Hall
As the global demographic ages, there has been a surge in neurological disorders worldwide. According to the WHO, more than 50 million people suffer from epilepsy and dementia continues to grow at the rate of 7.7 million new cases annually. It is thus imperative that low-cost, minimally-invasive neural signal monitoring systems are developed to record neural interactions and identify signs of synaptic dysregulation. Though a majority of current brain monitoring devices use microelectrode (ME) arrays on the surface or the inner-cortical regions, these modalities suffer from glial scar tissue formation around the electrodes leading to attenuation of the signal over time, limiting their lifetime. One possible solution is to measure the magnetic field around a neuron as opposed to the ionic current. Historically, various magnetic sensors have been used to monitor neural activity; however, despite their exquisite sensitivity, they must be operated at 4.2 Kelvin. To overcome the requirement for low-temperature operation, we propose using a magnetoresistive (MR) nanosensor capable of detecting low-magnetic fields at room temperature without loss of spatio-temporal information. An array of these nanosensors would provide a non-contact method for determining neural interactions while remaining naturally immune to changes in the underlying structure due to scar tissue.
AWARDS
| Principal Investigator | Institution | Title | Abstract |
| Andersen, Richard | California Institute of Technology | Engineering Artificial Sensation | View |
| Andrews, Anne | University of California, Los Angeles | Nanoscale Neurotransmitter Sensors | View |
| Bloodgood, Brenda | University of California San Diego | A novel toolkit for visualizing and manipulating activity-induced transcription in living brain. | View |
| Chaumeil, Myriam | University of California, San Francisco | In vivo metabolic imaging of neuroinflammation using hyperpolarized 13C | View |
| Cleary, Michael | University of California, Merced | Capturing physiological maps of neural gene expression | View |
| Cohen, Bruce | University of California, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory | Nano-optogenetic control of neuronal firing with targeted nanocrystals | View |
| Dai, Hongjie | Stanford University | Deep brain imaging of single neurons in the second near-infrared optical window | View |
| Hall, Drew | University of California, San Diego | Magnetic Monitoring of Neural Activity using Magnetoresistive Nanosensors | View |
| Krubitzer, Leah | University of California, Davis | An integrated system to monitor, image, and regulate neural activity | View |
| Kubby, Joel | University of California, Santa Cruz | Three-Photon Microscopy with Adaptive Optics for Deep Tissue Brain Activity Imaging | View |
| Melosh, Nicholas | Stanford University | Parallel Solid State Intracellular Patch-Clamping with Biomimetic Probes | View |
| Park, B. Hyle | University of California, Riverside | Label-free 4D optical detection of neural activity | View |
| Portera-Cailliau, Carlos | University of California, Los Angeles | High-speed interrogation of network activity with frequency domain multiplexing | View |
| Shanechi, Maryam | University of Southern California | Control-Theoretic Neuroprosthetic Design Using Electrocorticography Signals | View |
| Smith, Will | University of California, Santa Barbara | Whole brain imaging in a primative chordate | View |
| Wood, Marcelo | University of California, Irvine | Epigenetic PET tracer for cross-species investigation of age-related memory dysfunction | View |