MINES Saint-Étienne - Inspiring innovation
LinkedIn Youtube Instagram Research Gate Google Scholar
UK
Rechercher
Close
Menu

Research

Home | Research | Centres and Departments | Department of Bioelectronics (BEL) | Projects

Projects

2025-2028 – ANR – Bioptoprobe

  • Flexible bioptic probe for detection of optical activities in the brain
  • Partners: Institut de Neurosciences de la Timone (INT)
  • Grant: ANR JCJC
  • Contact: Charles Rezaei-Mazinani
  • Description: Optical recording of neural activities in mesoscopic scale is by far, less utilized than micro- and macroscopic scales due to technical limitations of optical imaging. To overcome these restrictions, we need a radical innovation enabling to image non-planar cortex surfaces and to compensate for the brain’s natural movements. The goal of this project is optical recording of neural activities by proposing Optoprobe, an ultra-flexible optical sensor composed of micron-scale organic photodetectors (OPD), which will be conformable to the brain curvature and movements, and scalable to any recording area, (µm2, mm2 or cm2) due to its freedom of design. OPDs have demonstrated promising performances in neuroscience applications. However, they remain limited due to OPD’s substantial technological hurdles, notably optical filtering, micro-patterning of active layer and a robust flexible thin-film oxygen encapsulation. This project is a proof-of-concept for development of Optoprobe, surging neuroscience applications of OPDs and it is composed of three actions. We address optical filtering using non-fullerene based OPD, which provides a narrow absorption band, able to filter excitation light and detect fluorescence for calcium imaging. We propose two novel approaches to pattern OPD pixels for achieving µ-scale resolution and to encapsulate them using a fully transparent thin-film layer. Subsequently, we will integrate OPD pixels in Optoprobe using our µ-fabrication expertise, and it will be attached to a flexible organic LED for excitation. Our biological model is the visual system since it is well characterized and offers extensive references to benchmark Optoprobe. The novelties of this proposal will not only be a significant technological leap in bioelectronics and materials science, but it will also be a necessary step to introduce a paradigm shift in optical recording of neural activities in mesoscopic scale empowering studies of dynamics of the whole visual system.

2023-2028 – PEPR – SIMBA

2023-2027 – ANR – AI-WEAR

  • Combining Artificial Intelligence learning with WEARable devices for improved stress diagnostics
  • Partners: Cognition Behaviour Technology (COBTEK), O-Kidia, Eurecom
  • Grant: ANR PRCE
  • Contact: Esma Ismailova
  • Description: Wearable Biometric Monitoring Devices (WBMDs) represent a recent alterative for the collection of health-related data from people. WBMDs allow for continuous and real time data
    collection in natural settings. However, these devices face two key challenges: 1) WBMDs require seamless interfaces that are not traumatic to patients; 2) WDBMs continuous flow of
    data comes at the price of having an enormous amount of information that cannot be analyzed manually. While artificial intelligence (AI) systems emerge as a natural solution to deal
    with complex data, these require large sets of accurately annotated data, which are cannot be guaranteed. We will build new WBMDs in the form of skin-compliant electrodes, capable
    of recording electrophysiological signals while guaranteeing patients’ acceptance. Then, a novel AI system will be developed for improved neurodevelopmental stress assessment that
    exploits weakly annotated data from WBMDs jointly with traditional measures.

2023-2027 – ANR – e-Diab

2023-2026 – European project – BAYFLEX

  • Bayflex – Baysian Inference With Flexible Electronics For Biomedical Applications
  • Partners: Ecole polytechnique Palaiseau (LPICM), Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), CEA-LITEN, Technische Universität Dresden (TUD), Bitbrain
  • Grant: EU Horizon 2022 – EIC Pathfinder
  • Contact: Esma Ismailova
  • Description: The long term vision in BAYFLEX is to create a radically new product that uses low cost, green organic technologies for probabilistic computing in order to allow continuous and private monitoring of bio-signals on flexible substrates.The vision of flexible green AI sensors with on chip classification, however, extends well beyond biomedical devices and has the possibility to transform sensor data at the edge of large networks. To achieve our goal, BAYFLEX will use physiological sensors based on organic materials that interface smart electronic devices with the soft human body. Electronic circuits will be fabricated in Thin Organic Large Area Electronics (TOLAE) processes. A spiking neuron circuit realized in Organic Thin Film Transistors (OTFTs) transforms non-stationary electrical signals from sensors into stochastic bitstreams and is input into a circuit that performs Bayesian inference using a stochastic computing paradigm to classify the data. The Bayesian inference circuit takes advantage of the unique properties of organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) to realize low transistor count dynamic Muller c-elements. The final demonstrator (TRL 3-4) will integrate these two organic technologies onto a flexible substrate and targets a circuit size of at least 50 organic transistors including both OECTs and OTFTs. The project brings together a diverse consortium with expertise in modeling emerging devices, biologically inspired circuit design, experts in machine learning involving electrophysiological data and teams with expertise in OTFT and OECT fabrication.

2023-2024 – European project – ELECTRONEUROSTIM

  • Behavorialstate-dependent effects of electrical stimulation on neuronal activity
  • Partners: Institut de Neurosciences de la Timone (INT)
  • Grant: EU Horizon 2021 – MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship
  • Contact: Davide Reato
  • Description: Brain function depends on neuronal activity which is mediated via electrical impulses. As such, brain stimulation has been used to treat mood disorders and stress. Nonetheless, the design of stimulation protocols necessitates a better understanding of the impact of electrical stimulation and the effect it has on other interacting brain regions. Funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) programme, the ELECTRONEUROSTIM project aims to investigate how electrical stimulation affects the activity of neuronal populations in vivo. Researchers will employ animal models to associate neuronal activity and behaviour during electrical stimulation. The generated insight will serve as the stepping stone for the design of electrical stimulation protocols.

2021-2025 – European project – HEARLIGHT

  • HearLight – Towards optogenetic cortical implants for hearing impaired
  • Partners: University of Strathclyde (UoS), University of Basel (UNIBAS), Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Institut Pasteur (IP/IDA), Novagan
  • Grant: EU Horizon 2020 – FET OPEN
  • Contact: Charles Rezaei-Mazinani
  • Description: Cochlear implants are the first and currently most successful sensory rehabilitation strategy, and equip thousands of hearing impaired patients. However, they suffer from strong information throughput limitations, making music perception and speech intelligibility in noise impossible, extremely detrimental to implanted patients. Project HearLight aims to establish a clear proof of concept for a radically new auditory rehabilitation strategy by direct stimulation of the main sound processing center in the brain, the auditory cortex. The auditory cortex not only offers one order of magnitude more interfacing surface, to boost information throughput, but it is also a plastic structure, adaptable to complex auditory codes, which could benefit from acoustic information preprocessing by modern artificial intelligence algorithms.

2021-2025 – ANR – BRAINSTORM

  • BRAin INfrared STimulation combined with Optical and electrical Recording using Microelectrode arrays based devices
  • Partners: Institut de Neurosciences de la Timone (INT)
  • Grant: ANR JCJC
  • Contacts: David Moreau, Rodney O’Connor
  • Description: Functional mapping of the connectivity of the brain is an essential procedure for neurosurgeons aiming for maximal resection of a brain tumor, while minimizing damage to the eloquent cortex. Being able to delineate the location of critical cortical areas in individual patients allows the surgeon to preserve sensorimotor and cognitive functions. Having a precise and rapid way to map the brain during such procedures would allow surgeons to improve the extent of resection while preserving the eloquent and essential structures of the brain. The spatial precision offered now by electrical stimulation is not sufficient for neurosurgeons and an improvement of that resolution would be welcome in such medical applications. Infrared neuronal modulation appears as a good candidate to deliver fast, label free mapping of the cortex with millimeter precision. Its few applications to the brain tissue and the low knowledge of the subsequent interaction is however not sufficient to go towards the development of clinical tools for neurosurgeons. This project aims therefore to develop the fundamental knowledge on the interaction between the infrared radiation and the brain tissue, leading to neuronal stimulation, to go towards new surgical tools.

2019-2023 – European Project – BORGES

2019-2022 – ANR – ABLATE

  • Application of a Bioelectronic-electroporation Lesion Ablation to target Temporal lobe Epilepsy
  • Partners: Institut de Neurosciences des systèmes (INS), Emory University / Translational Neuro-engineering Laboratory
  • Grant: ANR PRC
  • Contact: Rodney O’Connor, David Moreau
  • Description: Epilepsy is a neurological disorder characterized by spontaneous and recurrent seizures. This disease is widespread throughout the world but in some cases remains very difficult to treat. It is recognized that 30% of patients are drug-resistant, so in many cases the only possible approach is surgical resection of the epileptic focus. Such surgery is invasive and carries risks, including memory problems and loss of cognitive function.
    An alternative approach is radiofrequency (RF) ablation, which involves the removal of a small portion of the brain tissue that is thought to be an epileptic focus. This method is less invasive than surgery, but it has disadvantages, such as bleeding, increased temperature of brain tissue and difficulties positioning the electrode. To solve these problems, we propose to use a new technique called irreversible electroporation (IRE) whose main advantage is to not cause overheating of tissue that can lead to cell death. In addition, by using the flexible organic electrodes, it is possible to minimize the damage caused by the penetration of the electrodes into the brain tissue and all the adverse reactions associated therewith. Therefore, we propose to prototype the IRE ablation to treat focal-onset MTLE in rodents, specifically the lesions of the hippocampus most closely related to cases in patients.

2018-2022 – ANR – FIDELGLIO

  • Flexible Implantable organic electronic Devices for pulsed ELectric treatment of GLIOblastoma
  • Partners: Institut de Neurosciences de la Timone (INT), Panaxium
  • Grant: ANR PRCE
  • Contacts: Rodney O’Connor, David Moreau
  • Description: FIDELGLIO will endeavor to understand the mechanisms of PEF effects on brain vasculature and immune responses in the glioblastoma microenvironment. It will employ multiphoton microscopy to reveal the mechanisms of PEFs-induced BBB disruption in vivo and apply this novel knowledge to develop a PEFs-based platform for brain treatments. It will also investigate whether PEF delivery causes an immunogenic effect that can be leveraged with other treatments (ie, targeted immunotherapy). The overarching goal is to develop a novel, minimal invasive, efficient and safe treatment for brain tumors delivering PEFs by implantable organic electronic devices.