Research
Research Focus Areas
We consider that radical innovations are more likely to be developed within diverse teams that operate by using connective thinking. We are forming a strong multidisciplinary lab from the fields of biophysics, materials science, chemistry, neuroscience, and neurosurgery that comes together at the core of biointerfaces.
Our expertise and interests span from engineering of tools and interfaces for cellular control and elucidating biophysical interfacial mechanisms, to the interrogation of cellular signalling in nervous systems.
We synthetise and functionalize inorganic materials to apply them in studies, aiming to replace or control biological functions.
Main research interests in the biointerfaces lab
Neural interfaces
We develop materials and technologies that drive exciting biological studies, with emphasis on the control of neurobiological processes. Our focus is to take advantage of externally applied magnetic fields coupled to magnetic nanomaterials to act as force, heat, or voltage transducers for wireless control of sensory cells.
Biosensors
We leverage physical properties of nanomaterials to build biosensors for detection of neurotoxic analytes in vitro and in vivo. Our aim is to design biosensing devices that are fast, miniaturized, and attractive for onsite testing. One of the main advantages of using nanoparticle based biosensing is the small size of the detector, being sensitive in terms of concentration and volume of analyte in respect to conventional sensors.
Neuronal mechanotransduction
We are curios in the basic transductory mechanisms in neurons, particularly in the field of mechanobiology. We study physical forces that govern the ion channel activity in primary neurons. Our focus are mechanosensitive ion channels, such as TRPV4 and Piezo1, endogenously expressed in the peripheral neurons and involved in the sensory perception such as touch, hearing, and pain.