Overseas Travel Fellowship - Research Visit to Max Planck Institute

The aim of the visit is to strengthen our already existing collaboration . This collaboration was initiated in early 2016 through the Australian Technology Network- German Academic Exchange Service Scheme (ATN-DAAD) program, arising from a shared research interest in interfacial science and complementary experimental capabilities in the areas of chemical and physical manipulation of cells.
The overarching aim of Dr. Elnathan's visit will be to address a long standing challenge in electrophysiology: the creation of a sensor array capable of both intracellular and parallel recording of cell
membrane potential. We propose to achieve this using vertically aligned nanoelectrodes arrays (VANEAs), the fabrication of which is Dr. Elnathan's particular expertise- a demanding conceptual,
experimental, and interpretive program . At present, the primary method of recording electrical activity in cells requires careful alignment of tiny glass micropipettes using manually operated robotic manipulators. While this technique has led to many important discoveries, this process is slow and yield-limiting for many experiments.