Bioengineering a low-cost, highly scalable platform to diagnose and treat neurological disorders
NeuroDetect is proud to announce our next major technological development in our company history; the creation of a low-cost, highly scalable microelectrode array (MEA) platform. Given the wealth of information that can be derived from the electrical communication between cells, we wanted to create a hardware platform that was easy to use, affordable, and adaptable for any use case. This involved the use of modular components that can be obtained individually or 3D printed. Our novel circuit design is capable of highly adaptable performance for both precise and course measurements. The platform can be integrated with our user-friendly software.
BioENGINE Project
In collaboration with The UC Irvine Samueli School of Engineering, BioENGINE Program, and Children's Hospital Orange County Research Institute, the team recently completed a nine-month senior design project to develop the platform. Key design criteria of the project included (1) low-cost, (2) highly scalable, (3) modular, (4) reusable, and (5) adaptive to several different neurological disorders.
Validation testing
Signals were generated on the MEA using saline and a power source supplying voltage to the electrodes. Shown below is a graphical representation of the voltage output from a single MEA electrode.
Next hardware development phase
The BioENGINE project was Phase One to build our hardware. Phase Two of our hardware will significantly amplify MEA compatibility to further expand the adaptive nature of the design, reduce the size, and improve aesthetics of the device. Our next iteration of the device will also be equipped with a fully functional temperature and CO2 controlled cell culturing system with an intuitive user interface.
Next-generation hardware-software platform to diagnose and treat neurological disorders and neurodegenerative diseases
We envision the platform to be used by researchers and medical professionals to develop diagnostic and therapeutic biomarkers for many different clinical neurological disorders and neurodegenerative diseases. To complement our hardware, we will soon show validation for our software that will more objectively diagnose and recommended treatment strategies for patients with epilepsy, autism, and other clinical disorders characterized by gain-of-function (GoF) and loss-of-function (LoF) deficits.
Let's meet the members of the BioENGINE team!
Taylor: Housing prototype design, market and product research, CAD design
Vanessa: Team lead, circuit design, technology research, finance and budgeting
Branden: Housing design lead, CAD modeling, future device prototyping
Nicholas: Circuit design lead, circuit simulation modeling, hardware integration
Darrien: Device testing lead, software algorithm development and validation
Thanh: Device design lead, CAD modeling, advanced simulation modeling
Thank you to UC Irvine, The BioENGINE Program, CHOC Research, NeuroDetect team, and our supporters!
We are thankful to Christine King, PhD for providing the opportunity to work with the BioENGINE Program. To the Chief Technology Officer of NeuroDetect, thank you to Gavin Kress, MS for leading the project. To our friends who continue to support us, thank you for reading our update and watching our final presentation video.
Sincerely,
Warren Merrifield, PhD, Gavin Kress, MS, and the NeuroDetect BioENGINE Team
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