This talk reviews our biomagnetic research, emphasizing brain-related biomedical applications. We developed and tested two micromagnetic neural stimulation devices: the MagPen, a solenoid-shaped microcoil implant validated in rodent models for hippocampal, dopamine, sciatic, and vagus nerve stimulation, and the MagPatch, a microcoil array designed for single-cell-resolution stimulation.
n this talk, I will overview my group effort on biomagnetic research including detection of diseases. Then I will focus reporting our team’s recent magnetic biomedical brain related research: 1) micromagnetic neural stimulation (μMS) [1]; 2) spintronic neural sensing [2]. First, designing, fabrication and testing of two micromagnetic implants – the Magnetic Pen (MagPen), a solenoid-shaped single µcoil prototype and the Magnetic Patch (MagPatch), a rectangular helix shaped planar µcoil array prototype, will be reported. The efficacy of micromagnetic activation using MagPen has been tested over the following rodent models [3,4,5]: on the rat hippocampal CA3-CA1 synaptic pathway in vitro; on the medial forebrain bundle (MFB) of rodents for the study of striatal dopamine release in vivo; on the rat sciatic nerve to demonstrate the dose-response relationship for µMS in vivo; and, on the vagus nerve to demonstrate fiber-specific activation of the nerve in vivo. The MagPen prototype had its own caveat in terms of mm-size, lack of multidimensional spatial control and activation at the cellular-level. To bridge this research gap, the MagPatch array was designed and fabricated with the goal to study μMS at the single cell resolution. Second, we used FEM exemplary models and open-source computational libraries and calculated the magnetic fields generated by individual neurons and neuronal networks at micrometer distances [2]. Our results show that the magnetic field generated by a single-neuron action potential can be detected by ultra-high sensitivity sub-pT magnetic field sensors, which opens the door to future in vivo decoding of neuronal activities through neural networks. Room temperature, high endurance, small volume and low power make spintronic sensors one of the promising candidates for neural sensing. On this aspect, I will review recent experimental progress for the spintronic sensors for neural sensing, with a specific discussion on our effort on spintronic stack design, device fabrication and detection. 1. R. Saha, et al, and JP Wang, Nanotechnology 33 (2022) 182004, 2. D. Tonini, et al, and JP Wang, Ann Biomed Sci Eng. 6 (2022) 019-029; 3. R. Saha, et al, and JP Wang, Journal of Neural Engineering 19 (2022) 016018, 4. R. Saha, et al, and JP Wang, J. Neural Eng. 20 (2023) 036022. 5. R, Saha, et al, and JP Wang, Biomedical Physics and Engineering Express (2024)
n this talk, I will overview my group effort on biomagnetic research including detection of diseases. Then I will focus reporting our team’s recent magnetic biomedical brain related research: 1) micromagnetic neural stimulation (μMS) [1]; 2) spintronic neural sensing [2]. First, designing, fabrication and testing of two micromagnetic implants – the Magnetic Pen (MagPen), a solenoid-shaped single µcoil prototype and the Magnetic Patch (MagPatch), a rectangular helix shaped planar µcoil array prototype, will be reported. The efficacy of micromagnetic activation using MagPen has been tested over the following rodent models [3,4,5]: on the rat hippocampal CA3-CA1 synaptic pathway in vitro; on the medial forebrain bundle (MFB) of rodents for the study of striatal dopamine release in vivo; on the rat sciatic nerve to demonstrate the dose-response relationship for µMS in vivo; and, on the vagus nerve to demonstrate fiber-specific activation of the nerve in vivo. The MagPen prototype had its own caveat in terms of mm-size, lack of multidimensional spatial control and activation at the cellular-level. To bridge this research gap, the MagPatch array was designed and fabricated with the goal to study μMS at the single cell resolution. Second, we used FEM exemplary models and open-source computational libraries and calculated the magnetic fields generated by individual neurons and neuronal networks at micrometer distances [2]. Our results show that the magnetic field generated by a single-neuron action potential can be detected by ultra-high sensitivity sub-pT magnetic field sensors, which opens the door to future in vivo decoding of neuronal activities through neural networks. Room temperature, high endurance, small volume and low power make spintronic sensors one of the promising candidates for neural sensing. On this aspect, I will review recent experimental progress for the spintronic sensors for neural sensing, with a specific discussion on our effort on spintronic stack design, device fabrication and detection.
1. R. Saha, et al, and JP Wang, Nanotechnology 33 (2022) 182004,
2. D. Tonini, et al, and JP Wang, Ann Biomed Sci Eng. 6 (2022) 019-029;
3. R. Saha, et al, and JP Wang, Journal of Neural Engineering 19 (2022) 016018,
4. R. Saha, et al, and JP Wang, J. Neural Eng. 20 (2023) 036022.
5. R, Saha, et al, and JP Wang, Biomedical Physics and Engineering Express (2024)