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SCIENCE ADVANCES•25 Sep 2020•Vol 6, Issue 39

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abb5696

■ Researchers

Eunhee Kim, Sungwoong Jeon, Hyun-Kyu An, Mehrnoosh Kianpour, Seong-Woon Yu, Jin-young Kim, Jong-Cheol Rah, Hongsoo Choi

Department of Robotics Engineering, Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST), South Korea.

■ Abstract

There has been a great deal of interest in the development of technologies for actively manipulating neural networks in vitro, providing natural but simplified environments in a highly reproducible manner in which to study brain function and related diseases. Platforms for these in vitro neural networks require precise and selective neural connections at the target location, with minimal external influences, and measurement of neural activity to determine how neurons communicate. Here, we report a neuron-loaded microrobot for selective connection of neural networks via precise delivery to a gap between two neural clusters by an external magnetic field. In addition, the extracellular action potential was propagated from one cluster to the other through the neurons on the microrobot. The proposed technique shows the potential for use in experiments to understand how neurons communicate in the neural network by actively connecting neural clusters.

• cell delivery
• selective connection of neural networks
• targeted neural
• microrobot

• 미래 의료 현장을 책임질 마이크로/나노 로봇 개발