Centre for Advanced Electronics

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Abstract

Electronic/optoelectronic systems built using classes of materials that enable intimate integration with soft tissues of the brain, the spinal cord and the peripheral nerves will accelerate progress in neuroscience research; they will also serve as the foundations for new approaches in regenerative medicine and in the treatment of neurodegenerative disease. Specifically, capabilities for injecting miniaturized electronic elements, light sources, photodetectors, multiplexed sensors, programmable microfluidic networks and other components into precise locations of the deep brain or for softly laminating them onto the surfaces of peripheral nerves will open up unique and important opportunities in stimulating, inhibiting and monitoring neural circuit behaviours. This presentation describes concepts in materials science and assembly processes that underpin these types of technologies, including bioresorbable, or ‘transient’, devices designed to disappear into the body on timescales matched to natural processes. Examples include ‘cellular-scale’ optofluidic neural probes for optogenetics research, systems for control of bladder function by closed-loop neuromodulation and bioelectronics ‘medicines’ for accelerated regeneration of damaged peripheral nerves.

Biography

Professor Rogers is the Louis Simpson and Kimberly Querrey Professor of Materials Sc. and Engg., Biomedical Engg., Mechanical Engg., Electrical Engg. and Computer Sc., Chemistry and Neurological Surgery at Northwestern Univ., USA. He is the founding Director of the Center on Bio-Integrated Electronics. Prior to this, he was faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign, where he held a Swanlund Chair, the highest chaired position at the university.

Professor Rogers has published >600 papers and is an inventor on >100 patents and patent applications, >70 of which are licensed or in active use by large companies and start-ups that he has co-founded. His research has been recognized with many awards including the Smithsonian Award for American Ingenuity in the Physical Sciences, the Lemelson-MIT Prize and a MacArthur Fellowship. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

First published: 10 February 2021