Curved Optoelectronic System to Monitor Ocular Signals

COSMOS is a highly multi-disciplinary project that will deliver the first technology for the continuous recording of cell resting membrane potentials.

Biological electric fields arise by ion transport across cell membranes and tissues, and represent a crucial cue in guiding cellular differentiation (e.g., stem cells), mutation (e.g., cancer cells), and migration (e.g., wound healing). However, the underlying mechanisms behind these phenomena are yet to be fully discovered.

This is because this data is currently hard to access with existing technologies: microelectrode arrays rely on electroporation (i.e. probing the cell membrane with consequent disruption, which makes it challenging to perform prolonged measurements), the patch-clamp method has a low throughput, and novel optical technologies mainly addressed the measurement of action potentials.

However, most cells in the human body do not fire action potentials, and they communicate in a narrower electrical range.

COSMOS will implement a platform to perform contact-free recordings of membrane potentials by optically mirroring the cell membrane charge.

This technology will be first applied in testing corneal regenerative technologies (topical drugs, limbal stem cells, post-corneal transplant monitoring), as corneal wounds are an excellent model to study electric field-regulated cell behavior.

COSMOS will provide the technological tool to enable addressing a fundamental scientific question, as well as pave the way towards new diagnostic methods, therapeutic strategies, and in vitro drug testing platforms.