People in Research

Elizabeth Leber

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Advisor: Buddy Ratner

Department/status: 4th year Bioengineering graduate student

Project overview:
A barrier to the use of chronically implanted neural electrodes is that they lose the ability to record or stimulate neural activity with time. As we believe the electrode surface to be of paramount importance in improving the biocompatibility of such electrodes, we are working on creating a novel surface coating for an implantable platinum electrode. Our goal is to turn one of the recently discovered poly(vinyl alcohol)-amino acid (PVA-AA) hydrogels into such a surface coating and deliver a biologic from this coating to alter the foreign body response.

Skills:
Running ESCA (XPS) and basic data analysis
Plasma Deposition
Mouse surgery (muscle implant)
Cell culture

Relevant honors or funding:
NIH Engineered Biomaterials Training Grant recipient