Recording intracellular activity using nanotower electrodes
A research team in the EIIRIS at Toyohashi University of Technology has developed 3D microneedle-based nanoscale-tipped electrodes (NTEs) that are longer than 100 µm. The needle length exceeds that of the conventional nanowire/nanotube-based intracellular devices, thus expanding the range of applications of nanodevices in intracellular recording, such as deep tissue penetration.
Additionally, they perform intracellular recordings using muscle cells.
"A technological challenge in electrophysiology is intracellular recordings within a thick biological tissue. For example, a needle length of more than 40 µm is necessary for performing brain slice experiments. However, it is almost impossible to penetrate nanoscale diameter needles with a high-aspect-ratio, because of the long hair-like nanostructure that has insufficient stiffness.
On the other hand, our NTE, which is 120-µm-long cone-shaped electrode, has sufficient stiffness to punch tissues and cells", explains the first author PhD candidate, Yoshihiro Kubota.
The leader of the research team, Associate Professor Takeshi Kawano said "Although we demonstrated the preliminary results of our NTE device, the batch fabrication of such intracellular electrodes, which have a needle length more than 100 µm, should lead to an advancement in the device technologies".
"This will eventually lead to realisation of multisite, depth-intracellular recordings for biological tissues, including brain slices and brain in vivo, which are beyond the capability of conventional intracellular devices."
As addressed by the research team, the NTE has the potential to be used in cells that are deep within a biological tissue, including brain slice and brain in vivo, thus accelerating the understanding of the brain.
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