Bioelectronics Research Reaches New Heights

The Bioelectronics Winterschool (BioEl) idea was born in 2013 out of the community of those working on “organic” bioelectronics. The term organic here refers to carbon-based electronic materials, like conducting polymers and conjugated dyes. At that time, there was a handful of groups around the world working on this topic, but interest was growing fast. There was a feeling that this community needed a specialized forum to spur creative brainstorming. Since the first edition of the meeting in March 2014, the organic bioelectronics community grew tremendously, and started to network and fuse with many other research tracks ranging from neuroscience and clinical neurology, to fundamental studies on microorganisms and plant photosynthesis. By March 2019, the 7th meeting, it was clear from the speakers and participants that BioEl had forged its own, unique multidisciplinary community. One original design concept of the BioEl meeting series is that every year, only new invited speakers receive invitations. Therefore, the scientific organizers must every year find a wholly new set of people to invite, and no repeats from previous years are allowed. Though at first seeming impossible to implement year after year, this principle has worked, and caused BioEl to constantly expand its horizons. There are always fascinating scientists to discover and bring into the community! This feature has proven highly effective in making BioEl successful. In order to showcase this new community, we have teamed up with Advanced Materials Technologies to create this special issue. The special issue on Bioelectronics covers a broad range of topics that reflect the growth and advancement of the field of bioelectronics over the years. The invited contributions were addressed to invited speakers (BioEl2019) and members of the organizing committee of BioEl, therefore this selection illustrates the thematic assortment of the conference. Topics include traditional and mature research directions but also emerging technologies. With focus on neural interface, Gelinas and co-workers present a method for in-vivo localization of implantable neural probes based on chitosan coatings. Khodagholy and co-workers demonstrate self-adhesive free-standing electrodes based on PEDOT:PSS and Aloe Vera gel for transcranial recordings and stimulation. Moving to in-vitro electrophysiology, Głowacki and co-workers develop conducting polymer modified organic photocapacitors with improved performance for cell stimulation while Wolfrum and co-workers demonstrate 3D printed microelectrode arrays for extracellular recordings of action potentials. Malliaras and co-workers on the other hand evaluate the long term stability of photolithographically patterned PEDOT:PSS microelectrodes arrays electrodes in cell culture conditions. Extending the in-vitro platforms Owens and co-workers integrate lipid monolayers on organic transistors for drug screening. Cifra and co-workers develop a chip that delivers nanosecond electric pulses for high filed stimulation of biostructures. A multi-metabolite sensor platform is presented by Inal and co-workers where they develop a method for simultaneous channel deposition and enzyme entrapment in OECTs. New materials for OECTs are presented from Yumusak and co-workers based on conducting polymers–DNA composites. Santoro and co-workers use focused ion beam-scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM) to probe the structure of 3D cell spheroids and their interaction with magnetic nanoparticles. Tybrandt and co-workers address actuation, with the development of a miniaturized ionic polarization diode for neurotransmitter release at synaptic speeds. Cardiac interface is also covered in this special issue from two contributions: Dvir and co-workers develop a piezo electric scaffold for cardiac tissue engineering while Kim and co-workers present stretchable, low impedance electrodes for epicardial recording and stimulation. The special issue includes a review from Tee and co-workers on bioinspired prosthetic devices while Sia and co-workers write a progress report on biosensors systems architecture for personalized health monitoring. Going beyond biomedical applications, Strano and co-workers write a progress report on plant nanobionics and the use of living plant as part of our technology. Additionally, Stavrinidou and co-workers present an OECT platform for real time monitoring of chloroplast processes. Boghossian and co-workers on the other hand developed PEDOT-based electrodes for enhancing the performance of bacterial-based photovoltaics. Finally, Gazit and co-workers develop supramolecular fullerene aggerates in peptide gels for photoelectronic applications. We hope the readership will enjoy these contributions as much as we have. It has been a pleasure to see the maturation of the community around the BioEl conference series in the past years, and we confidently look into the future. Eric Daniel Głowacki studied duel degrees in materials chemistry and history at the University of Rochester, graduating in 2009. He completed his Ph.D. in 2013 at the Johannes Kepler University on bioelectronic semiconductors and soft electronic devices, followed by a postdoctoral stay continuing these topics. In 2015, he was appointed assistant professor of physical chemistry. Since 2017, he moved his research group, working on implantable biomedical and bioelectronic devices, to Linköping University. Currently, Eric holds a joint appointment as a research professor at the Warsaw University of Technology, where he has started a research group developing novel polymer materials for bioelectronics. Eleni Stavrinidou received her Ph.D. degree in microelectronics in 2014 from Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Saint-Étienne focusing on understanding and engineering ion transport in conducting polymers. Then, she moved to Linköping University as a postdoctoral fellow to work on electronic interface with plants and became an assistant professor in organic electronics in 2017 at the same university. Since 2017 she is leading the Electronic Plants group at the Laboratory of Organic Electronics. Her research interests focus on plant-based biohybrid systems for energy and sensing applications and on the development of bioelectronic devices for monitoring and controlling plant physiology. Dion Khodagholy is an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Columbia University. He received a M.S. degree from the University of Birmingham in electronics and telecommunication engineering, followed by M.S. degree in microelectronics at the Ecole des Mines. He attained his Ph.D. degree in microelectronics at the Department of Bioelectronics of the Ecole des Mines and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in systems neuroscience at New York University, Langone Medical Center. His research aims to use unique properties of materials for the purpose of designing novel electronic devices that allow efficient interaction with biological substrates, specifically neural networks and the brain.