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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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"Modulating the Blood-brain Barrier at the Intracortical Tissue-electrode Interface to Evaluate Chronic"
Jessica Falcone - Advisor, Ravi Bellamkonda, PhD
Intracortical electrode recordings are a potential therapy for those living with paralysis. However, the chronic reliability of these electrodes in animals is extremely variable, which casts a shadow on chronic human use. One proposed cellular mechanism resulting in failure is the development of the astroglial scar at the electrode-tissue interface. However, there is a temporal mismatch between the stabilization of the astroglial scar (4 weeks) and cessation of neural recordings (12 weeks). Recent work from our lab has shown a correlation between electrode failure and aggravated blood-brain barrier. Here we show the blood-brain barrier healing properties of imatinib mesylate in a rat electrode-implant model. Our end goal is to modulate the blood-brain barrier and evaluate the effects of a sealed versus an opened blood-brain barrier on neural recordings.
Upcoming Center for Immunoengineering Faculty Meetings and Seminars
*July 11th
August 8th
*September 5th
October 3rd
*November 14th
December 5th
(* indicates seminar ONLY with NO 8:30 am faculty meeting)
Faculty meetings will begin at 8:30-9:30 am on Fridays (agendas will be sent prior to meetings, including topics such as training grant planning) and be followed by the 9:30-10:30 am seminar in the Petit Institute, Room 1128, unless otherwise noted.
Seminars will feature two research presentations by graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, followed by lively discussion. The goal of this series is to enhance our immunoengineering community here at Georgia Tech and to include involvement from Emory participants at regular intervals.
If you have any questions or are interested in being a speaker, please contact Billy Rittase.
