Flexible And Transparent Bioelectronics for Cardiac Electrophysiology And Optophysiology
Open AccessThe heart is a vital organ that pumps blood throughout the body, which is orchestrated by rhythmic electrical waves. Disruptions of cardiac electrical functions could be deadly and are commonly treated with medical devices capable of electrical sensing and stimulation. Rigid forms of contemporary devices lead to non-ideal biomechanical interfaces, causing physiological injuries to bio-tissues. Innovations in bioelectronics, such as miniaturized dimensions, lightweight structures, and improved flexibility, aim to meld better to the complex topology of cardiac tissues without hampering the desired therapeutic functions.Although electrical technologies with high temporal resolutions of sensing have been the backbone of cardiac electrophysiology (EP), the lack of high spatial resolution of stimulations may result in off-target cell-excitation, confounding scientific research. Optical technologies, such as optical mapping and optogenetics, offer unparalleled spatial resolution for probing and actuating cells of specific types within a complex network. Optical approaches, however, suffer from low temporal resolutions. Transparent electrodes incorporating the advantages of electrical and optical technologies are therefore appealing tools due to their electrical conductivity and optical compatibility, which allow for concurrent and co-localized multi-modal recordings and stimulations of dynamic cardiac EP events.The combination of flexibility and transparency allows the development of flexible bioelectronics, achieving better mechanical compliance with the dynamically beating heart while realizing high-quality electrical and optical investigations and manipulation of the cardiac intricacies. This dissertation introduces a series of novel bioelectronics with different functionality, properties, and material compositions. (1) A flexible and transparent microelectrode array-interconnect made of silver nanowires as a high-resolution electro-optophysiology bioelectronics for (i) electrogram recordings during optical pacing and (ii) synchronized electrical-optical mapping. (2) Atomically thin electrodes made of graphene tattoos as tissue-imperceptible and transparent biointerfaces that allow for (i) switchable sensing-actuating functionality for cardiac EP studies and (ii) high-fidelity and compatibility with optical studies while acting in the electrical mode. (3) A fully bioresorbable and implantable transparent microelectrode array platform for multi-modal spatiotemporal mapping and modulation of cardiac physiology. After the desired operational lifetime, the platform can self-eliminate in vivo in a fully biocompatible way, which is attractive for transient physiological investigations or postoperative monitoring / treatment.
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