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Nanophotonic neural probes for in vivo photostimulation, electrophysiology, and microfluidic delivery.

Overview

Authors: Xin Mu1,2,3, Homeira Moradi Chameh4, Mandana Movahed4, Fu Der Chen1,2,3, John N. Straguzzi1, Piyush Kumar1, Andrei Stalmashonak1, Hannes Wahn1, Hongyao Chua5, Xianshu Luo5, Guo-Qiang Lo5, Joyce K. S. Poon2,3, Taufik A. Valiante2,3,4,6,7, Wesley D. Sacher1,3
ORCID iDs: Xin Mu, Piyush Kumar, Joyce K. S. Poon
  1. Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics,Weinberg 2, 06120 Halle, Germany
  2. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Toronto,10 King’s College Road, Toronto, M5S 3G4 ON Canada
  3. Max Planck-University of Toronto Centre for Neural Science and Technology,Toronto, ON Canada
  4. Krembil Brain Institute, University Health Network,Toronto, ON Canada
  5. Advanced Micro Foundry Pte. Ltd., 11 Science Park Road, Singapore Science Park II, Singapore, 117685 Singapore
  6. Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Surgery, Toronto Western Hospital, University of Toronto,Toronto, ON Canada
  7. Institute of Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto,Toronto, ON Canada
Institutions: Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics (Germany); University of Toronto (Canada); University Health Network (Canada)
Journal: Microsystems & nanoengineering, volume 12, issue 1, article 100
Dates: received 26 August 2025; accepted 19 December 2025; published online 20 March 2026
Type: Research article · Language: English
License: CC BY
Identifiers: DOI 10.1038/s41378-026-01192-6 · PMID 41856990 · PMCID PMC13002897 · OpenAlex W7139016979
Open access: gold, a free copy (OpenAlex)
Status: code on request (how the code is found and verified)
Methods: Spectral & time-frequency, Statistics, Preprocessing, Single-unit activity, calcium imaging
Keywords: Nanofabrication and nanopatterning, Microfluidics, Optics and photonics
Topic: Photoreceptor and optogenetics research (Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience, Neuroscience), according to OpenAlex
Funding: Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
Citations: cited by 2 papers (Europe PMC); 84 references in the paper

Abstract

Implantable silicon neural probes with integrated optical emitters and electrodes are emerging tools for simultaneous optogenetic stimulation and electrophysiological recording in deep brain regions. In parallel, neural probes with microfluidic channels have been developed for localized drug delivery and neurochemical sampling. However, thus far, such fluidic probes have lacked optical and electrical functionalities or been limited to a low number of optical emitters and/or electrodes, constraining their utility in multimodal investigations of neural circuits. Here, we introduce foundry-fabricated silicon nanophotonic neural probes with monolithically integrated microfluidics. Each probe has 16 silicon nitride grating coupler emitters, 18 titanium nitride microelectrodes, and one embedded microfluidic channel. We evaluate the photonic, electrophysiological, and microfluidic functionalities in vivo in optogenetic, blue-light-sensitive mice. With our multifunctional neural probes, we demonstrate local suppression of epileptic seizure activity (induced by microfluidic injection of 4-aminopyridine) using photostimulation. Through foundry-compatible microfluidics integration, this work advances the versatility of nanophotonic neural probes and presents new possibilities for multimodal neuroscience experiments leveraging this scalable neurotechnology.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Code

The paper says that its authors' code is available on request: it was not published with the paper, so there is nothing to verify.

Code availability

Codes for data analysis are available upon reasonable request from the corresponding authors.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Tracing map

A tracing map links a paper to the code its authors published: this paper has none (its code is available on request), so it has no map.

Data

No dataset and no data link were found in the paper.

Data availability

Electrophysiological data reported in this study are available upon reasonable request from the corresponding authors.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Versions

The history of this record: each version stored by the harvester or made by a correction of its authors or of the maintainers of its code, and what changed in its facts. The texts of the paper (its abstract, its availability statements) are not part of it; versions that changed only those are not listed.

Version 1, 30 September 2026: the first record

Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, issue, pages, dates, 14 authors, 3 keywords, 1 funder, 79 references.

Cite

This paper

Mu, X., Chameh, H. M., Movahed, M., Chen, F. D., Straguzzi, J. N., Kumar, P., Stalmashonak, A., Wahn, H., Chua, H., Luo, X., Lo, G.-Q., Poon, J. K. S., Valiante, T. A., & Sacher, W. D. (2026). Nanophotonic neural probes for in vivo photostimulation, electrophysiology, and microfluidic delivery. Microsystems & nanoengineering, 12(1), 100. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41378-026-01192-6

BibTeX

@article{mu2026nanophotonic,
author = {Mu, Xin and Chameh, Homeira Moradi and Movahed, Mandana and Chen, Fu Der and Straguzzi, John N. and Kumar, Piyush and Stalmashonak, Andrei and Wahn, Hannes and Chua, Hongyao and Luo, Xianshu and Lo, Guo-Qiang and Poon, Joyce K. S. and Valiante, Taufik A. and Sacher, Wesley D.},
title = {{Nanophotonic neural probes for in vivo photostimulation, electrophysiology, and microfluidic delivery}},
journal = {Microsystems \& nanoengineering},
year = {2026},
month = mar,
volume = {12},
number = {1},
pages = {100},
publisher = {Nature Publishing Group},
issn = {2096-1030},
doi = {10.1038/s41378-026-01192-6},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s41378-026-01192-6},
pmid = {41856990},
pmcid = {PMC13002897}
}

RIS

TY - JOUR
AU - Mu, Xin
AU - Chameh, Homeira Moradi
AU - Movahed, Mandana
AU - Chen, Fu Der
AU - Straguzzi, John N.
AU - Kumar, Piyush
AU - Stalmashonak, Andrei
AU - Wahn, Hannes
AU - Chua, Hongyao
AU - Luo, Xianshu
AU - Lo, Guo-Qiang
AU - Poon, Joyce K. S.
AU - Valiante, Taufik A.
AU - Sacher, Wesley D.
TI - Nanophotonic neural probes for in vivo photostimulation, electrophysiology, and microfluidic delivery
T2 - Microsystems & nanoengineering
J2 - Microsyst Nanoeng
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/03/20
VL - 12
IS - 1
SP - 100
SN - 2096-1030
PB - Nature Publishing Group
DO - 10.1038/s41378-026-01192-6
UR - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41378-026-01192-6
LA - en
ER -

CSL-JSON

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