Engineering specific neuronal cell circuits

This projects is one of five projects funded as a collective as part of an adventure mini-CDT within the area of 'brain-on-a-chip'. The five projects each have specific focus, with this project making use of micro-fabrication technologies to construct living neuronal cell circuits at the small population (5-10 cells) and single cell level.

There is an urgent need for research into neurodegenerative diseases, however our lack of understanding of complex brain circuitry restricts modelling and evaluation for future healthcare strategies. Technological breakthroughs now allow us to engineer living nerve cell-circuits. We will engineer precisely defined circuits allowing experimental and computational models to be compared and validated these for the first time.

An outstanding problem in neuroscience is the ability to non-invasively suppress or manipulate unwanted brain activity or 'rhythms,' which occur due to spontaneous synchronization of large nerve networks. This behaviour can lead to epilepsy, Parkinsonian symptoms, or tremors. Several approaches have been developed recently within the theory of dynamical systems, which show promising results with numerical models of neural circuits, but have not yet been experimentally validated.

Within this project we will establish specifically designed neuronal circuits atop electrodes. This will allow elements of the circuit, and in some cases also including multiple sections across a single cell, to be interrogated in terms of cell function and function of the cell circuit. This work will be extremely important for future computational assessment of pharmaceutical and cell therapy treatments, large network modelling, and will also inform future developments of advanced biological computing.