Silicon Mesh for the Remote Modulation of Organ Electrical Activity

SUMMARY

• Electric organ stimulation has shown promise in the clinic for treating aberrant neurological and cardiac activity. Problematically, this approach is limited by the high risk associated with surgical or gene editing approaches to implant these stimulation systems.
• The inventors engineered a specifically doped silicone wire network on a flexible polymeric scaffold that can passively contour and adhere to an organ. The photoelectric properties of silicone material allow for organ activity to be modulated upon irradiation of sub-UV light through the material.
• The invention is a silicone mesh devices that is implanted around an organ and can modulate the electric activity of that organ through the irradiation of sub-UV light. A machine learning search algorithm is used to determine the light intensity and irradiation pattern necessary to produce the desired organ activity.
• The inventors proved the robustness of the silicone mesh system by designing two separate scaffolds to modulate electric activity in in vivo rat brains and ex vivo rat hearts. They demonstrated how their devices can induce movement in limbs of a sedated rat and induce heartbeat of a specific frequency.

FIGURE

ADVANTAGES

ADVANTAGES

• One-time procedure to implant
• Low risk of infection and complication 
• Application of silicone mesh platform to multiple organ types  
• Power and light source external to body

APPLICATIONS

• Cardiac arrythmia treatment 
• Neurological disorder treatment
• Tissue engineering

PUBLICATIONS

• Parameswarn, R; et al. Optical stimulation of cardiac cells with a polymer-supported silicon nanowire matrix. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2019 Jan 8; 116(2):413-421.
• Jiang, Y; et al. Rational design of silicon structures for optically controlled multiscale biointerfaces. Nat Biomed Eng. 2018 Jul; 2(7): 508-521.
• News story: A ray of light for treating cardiac conduction disorders. Feiner, R; Dvir, T. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2019 Jan 8