Design and manufacturing challenges of optogenetic neural interfaces: a review

Optogenetics is a relatively new technology to achieve cell-type specific neuromodulation with millisecond-scale temporal precision. Optogenetic tools are being developed to address neuroscience challenges, and to improve the knowledge about brain networks, with the ultimate aim of catalyzing new treatments for brain disorders and diseases. To reach this ambitious goal the implementation of mature and reliable engineered tools is required. The success of optogenetics relies on optical tools that can deliver light into the neural tissue. Objective/Approach: Here, the design and manufacturing approaches available to the scientific community are reviewed, and current challenges to accomplish appropriate scalable, multimodal and wireless optical devices are discussed.S B Goncalves is fully supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under grant PD/BD/105931/2014 from MIT Portugal program. This work is funded by the FCT with the reference project UID/EEA/04436/2013, by FEDER funds through COMPETE 2020—Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalizacção (POCI) with the reference project POCI- 01-0145-FEDER-006941. This work is also funded by ANI through the Brain-Lighting project by FEDER funds through Portugal 2020, COMPETE 2020 with the reference project POCI-01-0247-FEDER-003416. Moreover, this work is supported by ITEC - Iberiana Technical, Lda (Braga, Portugal).