Bio-X SIGF Graduate Student Fellow

Awarded in 2019
Home Department: Materials Science & Engineering
Faculty Advisors: Corey Keller (Psychiatry) and Guosong Hong (Materials Science & Engineering)

Research Title: Determining Biomarkers for Depression Through Correlating Invasive and Noninvasive Electrophysiological Signals

Research Description: One major challenge in developing therapeutic neural implants is preventing the immune response and chronic gliosis (or changes due to the damage to the central nervous system) that occur at the interface between the implant and the neural tissue, preventing accurate neural recording and stimulation. Ajay is developing injectable stimulation microdevices fabricated with ultraflexible electronic materials, designed to significantly reduce any chronic immune response. Using state-of-the-art techniques, he will quantify the molecular and cellular effects of the device on glial cells. Thus, Ajay’s ultimate goals are two-fold: to create 1) a new neural stimulator and 2) a paradigm for precisely measuring the device’s glial response.