Bioelectronics for Millimeter-Sized Model Organisms

Daniel L Gonzales; Krishna N Badhiwala; Benjamin W Avants; Jacob T Robinson

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2020.100917

Bioelectronics for Millimeter-Sized Model Organisms

iScience. 2020 Mar 27;23(3):100917. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2020.100917. Epub 2020 Feb 14.

Authors

Daniel L Gonzales¹, Krishna N Badhiwala², Benjamin W Avants³, Jacob T Robinson⁴

Affiliations

¹ Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, Purdue University, 206 S. Martin Jischke Dr., West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA.
² Department of Bioengineering, Rice University, 6100 Main St., Houston, TX 77005, USA.
³ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Rice University, 6100 Main St., Houston, TX 77005, USA.
⁴ Department of Bioengineering, Rice University, 6100 Main St., Houston, TX 77005, USA; Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Rice University, 6100 Main St., Houston, TX 77005, USA; Applied Physics Program, Rice University, 6100 Main St., Houston, TX 77005, USA; Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030, USA. Electronic address: jtrobinson@rice.edu.

Abstract

Advances in microfabrication technologies and biomaterials have enabled a growing class of electronic devices that can stimulate and record bioelectronic signals. Many of these devices have been developed for humans or vertebrate animals, where miniaturization allows for implantation within the body. There are, however, another class of bioelectronic interfaces that exploit microfabrication and nanoelectronics to record signals from tiny, millimeter-sized organisms. In these cases, rather than implanting a device inside an animal, animals themselves are loaded in large numbers into bioelectronic devices for neural circuit and behavioral interrogation. These scalable interfaces provide platforms to develop new therapeutics as well as better understand basic principles of bioelectronic communication, neuroscience, and behavior. Here we review recent progress in these bioelectronic technologies and describe how they can complement on-chip optical, mechanical, and chemical interrogation methods to achieve high-throughput, multimodal studies of millimeter-sized small animals.

Keywords: Bioelectronics; Electronic Materials; Systems Neuroscience; Techniques in Neuroscience.

Publication types

Review