Bio-functionalized neurochips

Arrays of gold microelectrodes have been generated on glass chips. Various adhesion molecules have then been covalently bound to the surface. Micropatterns of adhesion molecules were generated using photolithographic techniques. Dissociated neurons from chicken dorsal root ganglia adhere selectively to the adhesion molecules and form networks. It could be demonstrated that a single neuron can be stimulated by an adjacent microelectrode. The neural outgrowth was much improved on the specific adhesion proteins axonin-1 and NgCAM, compared to surfaces treated with aminosilane. Furthermore, the distance of cell membrane to surface was at a minimum on these specific neural adhesion proteins. These results show that the quality of neuron cultures on chips can be improved if specific neural adhesion proteins are used.