Highlights of Neural Microsystems Lab in 2009

 

1. Manuscript titled “Non-hermetic Encapsulation Materials for MEMS Based Moveable Microelectrodes for Long-Term Implantation in the Brain,” authored by Nathan Jackson (doctoral student), Sindhu Anand (doctoral student), Murat Okandan, and J Muthuswamy is now in press for publication in IEEE/ASME Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems.

2. Massoud L. Khraiche, doctoral student in the Neural Microsystems lab successfully defends his doctoral dissertation titled, "Novel biochip for simultaneously monitoring mechanical and electrical properties of neurons in vitro" on July 24, 2009 and will join the Biomedical Engineering department at University of California, San Diego as a post-doctoral fellow.

3. Massoud L. Khraiche (doctoral student in Neural Microsystems lab), was awarded First Place for his Distinguished Oral Presentation at the 10th Annual University of California Systemwide Bioengineering Symposium, held at Merced June 19-21, 2009. His paper was titled "Early Onset of Electrical Activity in Developing Neurons Cultured on Carbon Nanotube Immobilized Microelectrodes" and authored by Massoud Khraiche, Nathan Jackson and Jit Muthuswamy.

4. Nathan Jackson, doctoral student in the Neural Microsystems lab successfully defends his doctoral dissertation titled, "Neural Recordings in the Brain Using Novel Movable MEMS Microelectrode Arrays," on May 29, 2009. Nate will now take up his position as Micro-medical Implant Engineer in NMI Natural and Medical Sciences Institute, Tuebingen, Germany.

5. Manuscript titled "Assessment of gliosis around moveable implants in the brain," authored by Paula Stice (doctoral student) and J Muthuswamy is now in press to be published in Journal of Neural Engineering. The paper is available for free in the IOP stacks until July 25, 2009.

6. Arati Sridharan, doctoral student in the Neural Microsystems lab successfully defends her doctoral dissertation titled, "Photoelectrochemical Characterization of Bacterial Light Harvesting Structures for Novel Optoelectronic Biohybrid Devices," in April 2009 and joins the Neural Microsystems lab as a post-doctoral fellow.

7. Manuscript titled “Optoelectronic energy transfer at novel biohybrid interfaces using light harvesting complexes from Chloroflexus aurantiacus,” authored by Arati Sridharan (doctoral student), J Muthuswamy and V Pizziconi, is now in press for publication in Langmuir.

8. Paula Stice, doctoral student in Neural Microsystems lab successfully defends her doctoral dissertation titled, "Assessment of the Reactive Astrocyte Response Around Fixed and Movable Chronic Microimplants in the Brain," in February 2009 and will join the US patent and trademark office as a patent examiner.