Development of Micro/NanoElectrode Arrays and their role in Advancing Human Health

Abstract:

Cellular function and response has been a significant subject of human fascination since time immemorial and a major field of study that has improved the understanding of the mechanics of the human body. Specifically, the functioning of electrogenic or electrically active cells is of particular interest in this talk as these cells control several important physiological functions such as visualization, locomotion, and activities of key organs such as the brain, heart, eyes, ears, and spinal cord.

Micro/NanoElectrode Arrays serve as the primary interface for signal transduction with electrogenic cells and in conjunction with CMOS electronics, mechanics and software techniques are enabling instrumentation that will result in actively and passively manipulating a variety of electrogenic cells. Such manipulation of electrogenic cells can happen either in a dish, or on a wearable or in an implantable setting. These efforts to engage with electrically active cells are resulting in and will result in major advances in human health in areas such as drug discovery, diagnostics, therapeutics, prosthetics, environmental sensing and implantable devices in the upcoming decades. This seminar with introduce Micro/NanoElectrode Arrays and the author’s work in this area in the last 10 years at the Georgia Institute of Technology and at Axion BioSystems Inc. (both in Atlanta, GA). The seminar further talks about the integration of newer modalities of engaging with electrogenic cells such as micro/nanofluidic, nanoelectronic, chemical, optogenetic, etc. all of which are rapidly advancing the state of the art of Micro/NanoElectrode Arrays.

Biography:

Swaminathan Rajaraman received the B.S. degree in Electronics Engineering from Bharathidasan University (Trichy, India), the M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati (Cincinnati, OH) and the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, GA) in 1998, 2001 and 2009 respectively.

From 2001-2002 he was with Analog Devices Micromachined Products Division (MPD) in Cambridge, MA where he developed optical MEMS micro-mirrors for telecommunication applications. From 2004-2005 he was with CardioMEMS (now St. Jude Medical) in Atlanta, GA where he developed implantable MEMS pressure sensors for detection of heart disease. The CardioMEMS sensor is the only FDA-approved sensor for congestive heart failure detection in the market currently. In 2007 he co-founded Axion BioSystems Inc. (Atlanta, GA), a biotechnology company that has developed the industry’s first in-vitro Microelectrode Array (MEA) system. From 2007 to 2015, he served as the VP for Biological & Materials Engineering at Axion.

His current research interests include in-vitro and in-vivo Micro/Nanoelectrode Arrays, micro/nanofabrication, micro/nanofabrication on novel, biological substrates, microneedles, flexible electronics devices, microtweezers, micro-TAS, nanosensors and implantable MEMS devices.

Dr. Rajaraman was the track chair for a session on Bioelectric Sensors in IEEE EMBC 2010 and a chair for a session on MEMS Applications in Life Sciences at Georgia Bio’s annual meeting in 2013. He has additionally served on the Technical Program Committee of the Solid State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems Workshop (Hilton Head 2014 and 2016).