Multimodality Sense and Actuate Bioelectrical Interfaces

My team’s efforts are focused on the development and engineering of nanomaterials-based flexible platforms to interrogate and affect the properties of tissue and cells. A few of the major questions we strive to answer are: Can we make materials and platforms tailored to allow seamless and stable integration with cells and tissue as well as enable sensing and actuation? Can hybrid-nanomaterials allow new insights into biological processes such as tissue development and disease progression? Highly flexible bottom-up nanomaterials synthesis capabilities allow us to form unique hybrid-nanomaterials that can be used in various input/output bioelectrical interfaces, i.e., bioelectrical platforms for chemical and physical sensing and actuation. The outstanding electrochemical properties of the synthesized hybrid-nanomaterials allow us to develop highly efficient catalysts, and electrical sensors and actuators. We demonstrated sensors capable of exploring brain chemistry and sensors/actuators that are deployed in a large volumetric muscle loss animal model. Finally, using the unique optical properties of nanocarbons in the form of graphene-based hybrid-nanomaterials and 2D nanocarbides (MXene), we have formed remote, non-genetic bioelectrical interfaces with excitable cells and modulated cellular and network activity with low needed energy and high precision. In summary, the exceptional synthetic control and flexible assembly of nanomaterials provide powerful tools for fundamental studies and applications in life science and potentially seamlessly merge nanomaterials-based platforms with cells, fusing nonliving and living systems together.