8.7: Presentation session: BRAiN measurement and imaging technologies: “Transparent microarrays of vertically aligned carbon nanofibers as a multimodal tissue interface”

Instability of the brain/implant interface, driven predominantly by reactive tissue responses, remains a critical limitation in the long term efficacy of bioelectric prostheses. Several research groups are investigating the incorporation of nanostructured materials as functional elements of neural prostheses as a means of providing either more effective stimulus and monitoring of electrophysiological signals, or as a structural element to locally influence tissue response via scaffolding mechanisms. Our group and its collaborators have applied vertically aligned carbon nanofibers (VACNFs) as highly spatially resolved electrodes for electrophysiological interfacing to tissue. An interesting aspect of this material is that the high aspect ratio of individual nanofiber elements enables their penetration into cells for intracellular molecular manipulation, including the delivery and expression of exogenous genes. It is anticipated that genetic level manipulation of highly localized regions of tissue may be used to moderate the ubiquitous mechanisms of tissue response at the implant interface. This presentation will provide an overview of tissue interfacing using VACNF systems as a multimodal platform, enabling both electrophysiological coupling as well as genetic reprogramming of localized regions of tissue.