Conformal Organic Devices for Electronic Brain-gut REAdout and CharactERisation

Over 100M people in Europe live with a digestive disorder, and this number is rising. The gastrointestinal (GI) tract is a complex ecosystem which facilitates digestion and regulates food intake in addition to regulating immune function in order to effectively guard against pathogens while tolerating innocuous antigens. It also acts as a sensory organ. The GI tract is connected with the brain via neuronal and hormonal signalling pathways which form the gut-brain axis (GBA). Dysregulation of the GBA contributes to local pathologies such as inflammatory bowel disease and is implicated in the development of neuropathologies such as Parkinson’s and multiple sclerosis. Technologies for diagnosis of gastrointestinal (GI) dysfunction are underdeveloped and have not found widespread clinical utility. GI tract complexity has made it difficult to measure GI function and collect spatio-temporal information that could improve diagnosis or treatment. CODEBREAKER will generate a suite of conformal conducting polymer devices which interface with the GI tract, elucidating pathways of the GBA in health and disease. To do this we will develop new methods to measure key functions of gut: 1. Gut permeability (barrier integrity), 2. gut motility, and 3. enteric nervous system function. Recent, key technology advances in my group set the groundwork to enable CODEBREAKER. Our devices offer unparalleled functionality monitoring that can be applied on a variety of models and tissues of varying complexity. Where possible, devices will be tested on advanced tissue engineered models in vitro and perfused ex vivo tissues (e.g. rodent and pig). Where functionality is lost ex vivo or in vitro, in vivo experiments will be used. We will also investigate the use of permeability as an in vivo diagnostic compatible with endoscopy. CODEBREAKER has the potential to yield huge dividends in our understanding of how gut function and diet can affect our health, not just in the gut but also the brain.