Thomas Stieglitz Discusses Material Choice in Implant Development

Neural Implant podcast - the people behind Brain-Machine Interface revolutions

Thomas Stieglitz is a professor at the University of Freiburg where he does research on the development of biocompatible construction and interconnection technology as well as the use of microsystems for neuroprosthesis and neuromodulation. Thomas Stieglitz is also on the scientific-technical advisory board of Cortec- Neuro. In today’s episode, Thomas talks about is work in neuromodulation, shares insights on the best materials for implant development and finally, share some of the challenges faced with neuroprosthesis.

Top three takeaways:

1. Polymers have a lot of advantages as materials for implants. They are more flexible than Silicon although they are not as flexible as
2. Making the ideal implant takes targeting very well. And tailoring functionality to needs. General-purpose implants will not work
3. 3d printing has injected a new wave of possibility in the world of prosthetics

[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guest, Thomas Stieglitz

[3:30] Thomas Stieglitz talks about the different disciplines of Neural interfaces / neural electrodes and the motivation for his work.

[8:00] Polymers have a list of advantages. One is that they are more flexible than Silicon. Another is their variety of shapes.

[9:20] Silicon has advantages in certain areas. It is the best technology for recording and stimulating

[13:00] Thomas Stieglitz talks about the P dot polymer, what it is and how it works.

[16:35] Thomas Stieglitz talks about the ideal implant and describes the most robust and reliable implant you can have

[18:50] It will be an exciting development to see a paper on the comprehensive model of a digital twin of implant failure nodes.

[23:30] In Europe, without any institution like the IDE, there is no seamless way to get implants to human trials without negotiating with a legal entity to prove potential for success

[26:45] Thomas discusses his role at Cortec-neuro

[27:35] There are good and bad aspects of working with implants. Sometimes implants are damaged because Surgery personnel are not careful enough or rehabilitation personnel don’t follow the manual and break the connectors.

[30:00] “We believe that now, that we can predict with the data that we have and some additional in vitro experiments that we did after getting them back to proving something that those pieces can survive up to 5 billion of stimulation, pulses.”