Soft Transparent Microelectrodes based Multimodal Devices for Biointerfacing

Optically transparent microelectrodes are important technologies that can integrate with tissues and allow light to transmit in both directions for co-localized and crosstalk-free electrical recording, optical imaging, and optogenetics. Existing transparent microelectrodes rely on external optical fiber, camera, or microscope setups for optical biointerfacing. In this talk, I will discuss several of our recent examples of soft transparent microelectrodes based multimodal optoelectronic devices enabled by new concepts in materials, micro- and nano-fabrication techniques, and engineering designs. Those innovative devices integrate microscale light-emitting diodes, photodetectors, with transparent microelectrodes on a chip. They are designed in flexible formats and allow for stable, high-fidelity, high-content electrical and optical recording and modulation of many important cellular parameters (intracellular calcium dynamics, metabolic activity, biopotentials, etc.) across different spatiotemporal resolutions. We envision those multimodal devices will open up new windows to understand important biological processes at the cellular, tissue, and organ levels with high spatiotemporal resolution and selectivity.