iONE-FP7 · Implantable Organic Nano-Electronics

The vision of iONE-FP7 is to exploit for the first time flexible organic electronics for the development and testing of Active Multifunctional Implantable Devices (AMIDs) to treat Spinal Cord Injury (SCI). The devices will (a) have long-term stability associated to high biocompatibility and safety, (b) have reduced risk of a host versus graft immune response, (c) mimic the local microenvironment for stem/precursor cell recruitment and differentiation, (d) monitor locally the functionality of the regenerated nerve cells to intervene with loco-regional therapies (e) perform local stimulation with tunable electric fields, (f) deliver locally growth factors, neurotransmitters, and drugs.The use of flexible organic electronics devices (ultra-thin film organic field effect transistor (FET), organic electro-chemical transistor, nanoparticle organic memory FET) will advance the state-of-the-art of implantable devices for SCI from passive to active layouts that will promote nerve regeneration by a combination of local stimuli delivered on demand, will sense inflammation, and will control the immune-inflammatory response.The biomedical impact of the project will be demonstrated in vitro and in vivo. In vitro, the neural therapeutic plasticity induced by the iONE-FP7 device will be evaluated on stem cells, which will be differentiated to neural progenitor cells, and then to neural cells. In vivo, the study of neural plasticity will be transferred to endogeneous stem cells by implanting the iONE-FP7 device into a contusion SCI animal model.iONE-FP7 will acquire the knowledge and the technology required to regenerate the nerve in the niche of the injury.