Gregg Suaning is an expert in the field of Neuroprothese at the University of Sydney and currently external senior fellow at Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS).
The following is what he says about his stay so far: “I have been very fortunate to have been awarded a FRESCO Fellowship (Freiburg Research Collaboration Programme) from FRIAS to work at the University of Freiburg and at IMBIT for six months over three (COVID-19 adjusted) years. This is my second of three visits. The first was a very productive and enjoyable month in 2022 where I took advantage of IMBIT's world-class expertise in carbon nanofibres to explore fully carbon-based, penetrating electrode arrays for stimulation and recording of neural activity. Having established the basic processes during my visit, an excellent Bachelor Thesis was since carried out at IMBIT on the creation of carbon pillars, and a PhD theses has commenced in parallel at the University of Sydney, Australia on this topic. The respective PhD researcher will visit IMBIT in August to extend the outcomes of the work in 2023 which aims to find and characterize a material that will surround the delicate carbon pillars to protect them from the mechanical forces of implantation, and gradually dissolve to allow for the penetration of the pillars into the neural tissue. Adding anti-inflammatory agents (e.g. dexamethasone) to the material could further reduce the immune response, reducing scarring and improving the neural interfacing properties of the carbon electrodes. Ultimately, this work aims to lead to a range of applications in the spinal cord and in auditory and visual prosthesis. I'm grateful for this opportunity, and look forward to working with the IMBIT community during my visit and beyond.”
More information about Gregg's work are available at: https://www.sydney.edu.au/engineering/about/our-people/academic-staff/gregg-suaning.html
Interested to also become part of the FRIAS Fresco community? Please visit the FRIAS Website at: www.frias.uni-freiburg.de/en/funding-programmes/freiburg-research-collaboration-programme