Microfabricated Cortical Neuroprostheses

Andre Mercanzini · Philippe Renaud

Jan 2011 · CRC Press

About this ebook

Despite their demonstrated effectiveness, the long term use of microscale neuroprosthetic devices is compromised by the post-implantation tissue reaction that often forms around the device. This book studies ways to improve the tissue reaction to implanted neuroprosthesis by use of a controlled drug release mechanism, quantified by novel measurement techniques. The author describes solutions to the problem of tissue reaction around microscale neuroprostheses and an also examines an improvement in neural stimulation and recording capability. The author, Andre Mercanzini is Review Editor for Frontiers in Neuroengineering. He holds two U.S. patents on microassembly.

About the author

Andre Mercanzini has experience in both academic and industrial research environments, having developed MEMS (Microelectromechanical Systems) for a wide range of applications. He has held internships at the Institute for Biomedical Engineering (University of Toronto), the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), the Zyvex Corporation, and at Bosch Research in Palo Alto, California where he developed silicon processes for the Stanford Nanofabrication Facility. He holds two issued US patents on microassembly and has two patents pending on neurostimulation devices. Andre received his Ph.D. in bioengineering from the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) in 2009

Philippe Renaud is Professor at the Microsystem Laboratory (LMIS4) at the EPFL and scientific director of the EPFL Center of MicroNanoTechnology (CMI). His main research area is related to micronano technologies in biomedical applications (BioMEMS) with emphasis on cell-chips, nanofluidics and bioelectronics. After receiving his Ph.D. degree from the University of Lausanne (1988), he was a postdoctoral fellow at University of California, Berkeley, and then at the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory in Switzerland, before joining the Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM) at Neuchatel, Switzerland in 1992. He has been at the EPFL since 1994. Dr. Renaud is active in several scientific committees (scientific journals, international conferences, scientific advisory boards of companies) and is deeply involved in several high-tech start-up companies.