Combined magnetic and chemical patterning for neural architectures

Cécile Delacour (1) , Ghislain Bugnicourt (1) , Nora Dempsey (2) , Frédéric Dumas-Bouchiat (2) , Catherine Villard (1)

1 NEEL - TPS - Thermodynamique et biophysique des petits systèmes
2 NEEL - MNM - Micro et NanoMagnétisme

In vitro investigation of neural architectures requires cell positioning. For that purpose, micro-magnets have been developed on silicon substrates and combined with chemical patterning to attract cells to adhesive sites and keep them there during incubation. We have shown that the use of micro-magnets allows to achieve a high filling factor (∼90%) of defined adhesive sites in neural networks and prevents migration of cells during growth. This approach has great potential for neural interfacing by providing accurate and time-stable coupling with integrated nanodevices.

Mots clés: neural network; cell positioning; micro-magnet; chemical patterns

Domaines: Systèmes désordonnés et réseaux de neurones [cond-mat.dis-nn]

Cécile Delacour, Ghislain Bugnicourt, Nora Dempsey, Frédéric Dumas-Bouchiat, Catherine Villard. Combined magnetic and chemical patterning for neural architectures. Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, 2014, 47 (42), pp.425403. ⟨10.1088/0022-3727/47/42/425403⟩. ⟨hal-01069042⟩