Architected Micro-scale Shape Memory Polymers for Biomedical Applications

Personnel: Luizetta Navrazhnyukh (Ph.D. student in Medical Engineering)

Shape memory polymers (SMPs) can generate programmable movement in response to heat, enabling deployable structures such as stents and clot removal devices. If utilized at the micro-scale in complex 3D geometries, these materials could facilitate miniaturized surgical applications such as clot removal from ~ 200um diameter ocular veins and minimally invasive neural implant positioning for long term neural recording.

We are therefore developing shape memory polymer systems architected at the micro scale through two-photon lithography and exploring their dynamic mechanical properties. In particular, we are focusing on neural recording device positioning in primate brains, which requires accurate device insertion centimeters below the brain surface while minimizing device size. To address this challenge, we are developing optimized micro-scale architected SMP structures and a macro-scale delivery system that minimizes insertion forces required for positioning. Such systems will enable long term recording, and therefore investigation of brain diseases and connectome mapping, in primate rather than mouse brain models.