Design of portable optoelectronic devices for optogenetic research of mice brain

The research described here aims to design and fabricate light emitting modules for a mobile optogenetic device used with animals that are moving freely in the cages. The original mobile device constructed by us consisted of a light source placed outside the animal's skull and optical fibre structure responsible for delivering light into the selected brain area. The next approach described here is based on a LED chip attached to the tip of a cannula which is directly implanted into a mouse’s brain. The devices we have constructed consist of an electrical connector, standard cannula and micro-LED chip operating at 470 nm as light source. The device has been fabricated and tested in vivo. We have also demonstrated light conversion from 470 nm to 590 nm by applying a silicate orange phosphor directly to the LED chip. Finally we designed a wireless optogenetic implants based on the NFC-technology for mice freely moving in cages and a software that controls the wireless power supply. We have extensively validated experimentally the designed mobile and wireless optogenetic implants.