University of Freiburg

University of Freiburg (ALU-FR) was founded in 1457 already as a comprehensive university offering studies in all important disciplines today: the humanities, natural and engineering sciences, medicine, law, and theology. More than 24,000 students are educated in 180-degree programs at 11 faculties. The university’s recent success in the “Excellence” competitions of the German Research Foundation (DFG), testifies to its position as one of the leading universities of the 21st century.

The Department of Microsystems Engineering (IMTEK) has expanded over the past years to become one of the largest academic institutions worldwide dedicated to the education of microsystem engineers and the research and development of microsystem technologies. IMTEK currently has 23 professors, over 370 research, teaching, and technical staff, and 650 microsystems engineering students. ALU-FR will participate in the NAP project with the Neural Implant Group at the Microsystem Materials Laboratory (MML). IMTEK-MML will develop the M3actor and dedicated peripheral components requested to safely guide the brain organoids to the recording sites. The team will exploit their in-depth expertise in neural probe fabrication for electrophysiology, optogenetics and fluidic manipulation. Relevant expertise for NAP. ALU-FR, in particular the Microsystems Materials Laboratory (MML) will contribute to the NAP project its in-depth expertise in development, fabrication and validation of neural probes and neural implants for the CNS and PNS realized using advanced microsystems technologies. Our implantable devices are either based on silicon or polymers applied among others.

Patrick Ruther

Patrick Ruther graduated in Physics from the Univ. of Constance (Germany) and obtained his PhD in mechanical engineering from the Univ. of Karlsruhe (Germany) in 1996. After his post-doc on microoptical components and systems at the Research Center Karlsruhe, he joined the Univ. of Freiburg in 1998 as a research group leader working on physical sensors (mechanical stress, magnetic fields, etc.), material and system validation, and process development. Since 2004 PR focuses on neural probes based on silicon and innovative MEMS fabrication technologies for neuroscientific research and human applications. With colleagues from the EU project NeuroProbes he pioneered the electronic depth control (EDC) probe introducing CMOS circuitry into the probe shafts enabling an unprecedented increase in the amount of recording sites per probe. Patrick has a strong expertise in leading collaborative research projects of interdisciplinary character, i.e. as technology coordinator and WP leader of NeuroProbes (FP6), and coordinator and WP leader of NeuroSeeker (FP7).

Marc Keller

Marc Keller is currently a Ph.D. student specializing in Microsystems Engineering at the University of Freiburg. He successfully earned both his Bachelor's and Master's degrees during his academic journey.

Notably, his Master's thesis focused on creating a compact implant specifically designed for deep brain applications. Marc possesses expertise in MEMS assembly and packaging, and his keen interest lies in

the intersection of medical engineering and neuroscience. His passion for micro-fabrication technologies and process development drives his active contribution to the development of intricate hardware components for the NAP project.

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