AT THE INTERFACE OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM AND IMPLANTABLE DEVICES
Xinyan Tracy Cui
As director of the Neural Tissue Electrode Interface and Neural Tissue Engineering Lab and William Kepler Whiteford Professor of Bioengineering, Xinyan Tracy Cui works at the interface between artificially made implantable devices and the nervous system. She has dedicated her career to studying how biological responses affect neural interface function, with the end goal of ensuring that the implant and brain tissue work together seamlessly.
Implantable devices in the brain are used for anything from recording electrical impulses to restoring motor function in paralyzed patients. While there are obvious benefits to these devices, issues involving mechanical damage to the brain and the host tissue’s response to a foreign object still pose a large problem.
To overcome these hurdles, Cui and her lab developed an ultra-thin, flexible implant. The size and shape solve some of the mechanical issues and allow the device to move with the brain rather than irritate it with an immovable object. They also developed different types of coatings that reduce the inflammatory response and attract neurons to the device to get a stronger signal.
“Neurotechnology has become such a hot topic and I’m thrilled to be a part of it,” says Cui. “The field is exploding, but there’s still plenty to learn and ways to improve the devices.”
In April 2024, Cui received a $2.6 million R01 grant in collaboration with Amy Wagner in the School of Medicine to investigate the cognitive and affective deficits after a traumatic brain injury (TBI) using multimodal flexible neural probes. There are few treatments for TBI, so the team aims to use these devices to better understand the neurochemical and biological origin of the symptoms and identify an effective therapy.
“The multimodal probe we develop for this study can be customized for studying varieties of neurological and psychiatric disorders and provide clinical impact even if we aren’t implanting the devices in humans,” says Cui. “The work we do will help move the field forward and benefit people in the long run.”