Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

BIOELECTRONICS

Wireless neuromodulation with porous silicon

Nature Materials volume 21, pages 614–616 (2022)Cite this article

Subjects

Wireless optoelectronic devices are fabricated by controlling the porosity of p-type silicon, enabling in vivo efficient, non-genetic optoelectronic modulation of peripheral nerve activity.

Neuroprostheses are medical devices currently used to restore or substitute the activities of different neural and muscular structures with promising clinical results1,2. Present approaches (e-Neuro devices) electrically stimulate these structures, resulting in a good but limited ability to selectively activate them. Moreover, they require the presence of leads inside the body to connect the neuroprosthesis with the external world, which have been associated with potential complications. These issues hamper the long-term application of neuroprostheses and evoke the need for solutions to enhance the clinical impact of such devices. For these reasons, ‘wireless’ and ‘non-electrical’ approaches are increasingly being investigated by scientists, with promising results3,4,5. Optogenetic modifications have been successfully deployed, yet the required genetic modifications have hindered the clinical translation of this technology. Meanwhile, optoelectronic stimulation approaches using light-sensitive materials to convert light into electrical stimuli can be more versatile and easier to translate to clinical applications.

This is a preview of subscription content

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

Fig. 1: Wireless porous silicon heterojunction-based neuromodulation.
Fig. 2: Nanotechnology-based neuromodulation principles.

References

  1. Lacour, S. et al. Nat. Rev. Mater. 1, 16063 (2016).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Shokur, S. et al. Med 2, 912–937 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Won, S. M. et al. Nat. Biomed. Eng. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41551-021-00683-3 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Cotero, V. et al. Nat. Biomed. Eng. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41551-022-00870-w (2022).

  5. Yang, X. et al. Adv. Mater. 33, 2103208 (2021).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Prominski, A. et al. Nat. Mater. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-022-01249-7 (2022).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Yoo, S. ACS Nano. 13, 544–551 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Marino, A. et al. Nano Today 14, 9–12 (2017).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Capogrosso, M. et al. J. Neurosci. 33, 19326v19340 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Lemaire, T. et al. iScience 24, 103085 (2021).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Cracchiolo, M. et al. J. Neural Eng. 18, 041002 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The BioRobotics Institute and Department of AI and Robotics, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa, Italy

    Silvestro Micera & Eugenio Redolfi Riva

  2. Bertarelli Foundation, Translational Neuroengineering, Center for Neuroprosthetics and Institute of Bioengineering, School of Bioengineering, ePFL, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Silvestro Micera

Authors
  1. Silvestro Micera
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Eugenio Redolfi Riva
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Silvestro Micera.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Micera, S., Redolfi Riva, E. Wireless neuromodulation with porous silicon. Nat. Mater. 21, 614–616 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-022-01257-7

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-022-01257-7

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing