神经芯片研究新进展：微接触印刷将神经元和硅片融为一体

神经芯片是一种利用微电极阵列实现神经细胞与电子器件信息传导的生物芯片,是人工神经代偿器件的接口.它通过把活的神经元和硅电路有机地连接在一起.实现对细胞无损伤的长时程记录,并且可以施加人为刺激.目前这一领域的关键问题在于如何使神经细胞在芯片上按照电极点的位置黏附生长,建立通讯联系并提高芯片材料的信噪比.利用微加工工艺有望达到这一目的 .微接触印刷技术在其中应用最为广泛.它应用聚二甲基硅氧烷为印章,以生物大分子或有机聚合物为"墨水",把主模板上的精细图案转印到硅片材料上,从而实现对材料表面黏附底物的改性和结构的微加工.本综述简要介绍了神经芯片的研究进展,详细阐述了微接触印刷技术的研究现状,并且初步探讨了这一工艺在神经芯片领域中的最新应用.

Neurochip's advancement research: neurons and silicon get intimate by microcontact printing

Neurochip is a kind of biochip by using microelectrode array to achieve information transmission between neural cells and electronic devices, as well as an interface of artificial neural compensation device. By connecting living neurons to silicon circuits, long-term recording and stimulating are completed non-invasively. At present in this field, the key point is how to make neural cells adhere on the chips, direct cell bodies to electrodes, establish the communication links and promote the signal to noise ratio between the neuron and substrate. Micro-fabrication technology can be expected to achieve this goal in which microcontact printing technique is the most widely used. By the application of polydimethylsiloxane as stamps, biological macromolecules or organic polymer as “inks", the fine patterns are transferred to the silicon from the template in order to achieve surface modification of materials and structural micro-fabrication. In this review, we introduce the advancement of neural chip research briefly, describe the current research of microcontact printing technology in detail and discuss the application of this approach in the field of neural chip nowadays.