H2020Индивидуална стипендия2020–2022

BIOMOSAIC · From Biopigments to BIOelectronics: MOdelling Semiconducting EumelAnin-based InterfaCes

„Хоризонт 2020“ — Действия „Мария Склодовска-Кюри“

Период: 2020-04-01 → 2022-03-31
Финансиране от ЕС: 212 934 €
Участници: 1
Схема: MSCA-IF-EF-RI

Линиите свързват координатора с партньорите.

Накратко на български

Еумеланинът, пигментът в кожата и косата ни, се изследва чрез компютърно моделиране, за да се разбере как да се подобрят неговите проводими свойства. Това ще помогне за създаването на по-безопасни биоелектронни устройства, като например носими сензори за глюкоза или импланти за стимулиране на нерви.

Този кратък обзор е генериран от изкуствен интелект

Кратко обяснение, генерирано от езиков модел по текста на CORDIS. Оригиналът е по-долу.

Резултати накратко

From Biopigments to BIOelectronics: MOdelling Semiconducting EumelAnin-based InterfaCes

Bioelectronic devices are being developed to treat diseases by electrical stimulation of nerves and replace drugs, avoiding their harmful side effects. Other applications are in monitoring and diagnostics, such as wearable glucose sensors for diabetes, or ingestible nanoelectronics to replace invasive unpleasant exams like gastroscopies. Organic materials, due to their flexibility and low cost, are ideal candidates for bioelectronics applications; their mechanical, physical and chemical properties can be easily tailored to match those of different biological tissues. However, a systematic design and improvement of polymer semiconductors for OECTs is currently out of reach due to the lack of structure-properties relationships describing these mixed conductors. While current efforts are mostly focused on adapting polymer semiconductors developed in organic electronics by making them more hydrophilic, these materials are rarely biocompatible and may have limited stability in water. A radically different approach is instead to exploit naturally biocompatible materials, enhancing their ionic and electronic conducting properties. Eumelanin – the brown-black biopigment in our hair and skin responsible for protecting us from the effects of solar radiation, is a natural protonic and electronic conductor, and thus promising for bioelectronic applications. However, this pigment lacks a well defined chemical and supramolecular structure, making it difficult to systematically improve its conductive properties. The overall aim of this project is to leverage computational chemistry tools to develop a model of eumelanin and related materials, promoting the development of structure-properties relationships and its future incorporation in biomedical electronic devices. The model will ultimately shed light on the limiting factors for conductivity in eumelanin, and enable the optimisation of eumelanin-based devices.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз

Цел на проекта

The overall aim of this proposal is to build a comprehensive model of ionic and electronic transport in organic bioelectronics considering a prototypical material, eumelanin, as a proof of concept. Bioelectronic devices are used in nanomedicine for implantable, wearable and sensing applications. Eumelanin is a natural biocompatible semiconductor with great potential in bioelectronics due to its joint electronic and ionic conductivity. However, a full picture of its interactions with water and electrolytes and how these influence its semiconducting properties is still missing, thus holding back a systematic improvement of eumelanin-based devices. This project will provide the first unified picture of eumelanin’s mixed conduction by simulating electronic and ionic charge transport at device-relevant scales and combining them in a numerical model. This will be achieved through four innovative steps towards eumelanin characterisation: i) reactive molecular dynamics (MD) simulations will capture the details of water-eumelanin interactions; ii) a classical MD approach will describe ionic conduction in hydrated eumelanin; iii) electronic structure methods will relate eumelanin’s morphology to its electronic conductivity. iv) The previous insight will be combined in a model describing mixed conduction in eumelanin-based devices, allowing the formulation of general design rules for the development of new bioelectronic materials. Planned collaborations with leading groups in eumelanin bioelectronics will provide experimental data to build and validate the model, resulting in high-impact publications and contributing to European competitiveness in bioelectronics. The complementary nature of the researcher and host’s research profiles is instrumental in fulfilling the complex, interdisciplinary aims of the project. The Fellowship will allow the researcher to expand her knowledge beyond her existing skills, enabling her transition towards an independent academic career.

Оригинален текст от CORDIS (на английски).

Участници

THE UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL · LIVERPOOLКоординаторОбединеното кралство