Xref: utzoo bionet.neuroscience:11 comp.lsi:1434 comp.ai.neural-nets:3166
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!bbn.com!eneumann
From: eneumann@bbn.com (Eric Neumann)
Newsgroups: bionet.neuroscience,comp.lsi,comp.ai.neural-nets
Subject: Re: Biological Chip Coatings
Message-ID: <5634@archive.BBN.COM>
Date: 5 Apr 91 14:42:46 GMT
References: <1991Apr2.164740.28858@fcom.cc.utah.edu>
Sender: news@bbn.com
Followup-To: bionet.neuroscience
Organization: BBN
Lines: 22

In article <1991Apr2.164740.28858@fcom.cc.utah.edu> 
strohsch@mines.utah.edu (David A Strohschein) writes:
>   I am trying to find information about growing nerve cells on integrated
> circuit surfaces.  The object is to grow the nerves on the ICs while 
> retaining the normal or near normal electrical and physiological 
functions of
> the nerve tissue.  I have done some research in the library under the 
topics of
> tissue culture and biopolymers however, this seems to be a new or 
specialized
> problem and most books do not address this subject.  If there is enough 
response I will post 
> the information. Thanks in advance.

Dr. McKay at MIT in collaboration with Mitch Eggers at Lincoln Lab  have 
developed a system for growing neurons on silicon wafers containing a matrix of gold microelectrodes using poly-lysine (?) as the cellular substratum.  They're able to simultaneously record from many neurons as well as stimulate 
specific ones in order to measure the total response.

Dr. Eric Neumann
System and Technologies Division
BBN Laboratories
Cambridge, MA