Our nano-Drives and pico-Drives enable precision in vivo position adjustment of our innovative chronic silicon neural probes and co-alignment with fluidic and fiber optic cannulas too...
nano-Drive and pico-Drive: the world’s smallest and lightest chronic multi-functional microdrives
Smallest, most accurate drives ever made - small 2 x 5 mm footprint, 250 μm/ turn with up to 7.5 mm travel in an ultra-light form.
Silicon neural probe compatible - purpose-designed to guarantee easy alignment of our silicon neural probes with drive axis.
Optogenetics compatible - easily co-align our silicon neural probes with a fiber optic cannula to form a chronically implantable optrode.
Scalable to multi-target implants - small footprint facilitates targeting of multiple brain areas within the same animal, opening up network- and system-level experiments with combined recording and optogenetics.
Reusable - robust metal construction with 2 μm tolerance ensures accuracy, enables sterilization and straightforward re-use.
Chronic Optrodes: Seamless co-alignment of silicon neural probes with fiber optics and more...
Our chronic nano-Drives enable straightforward integration of your chosen fiber optic cannula alongside our silicon neural probes. Precise spatial registration and separation between the probe and fiber is guaranteed (300 microns or 150 microns) to minimize tissue damage arising from the fiber whilst ensuring proximity for sufficient illumination of your target opsin-expressing neurons.
The chronic nano-Drives can also accommodate a fluidic injection guide-cannula alongside your optrode assembly - this facilitates an all-in-one approach whereby your chosen vector can be micro-injected at the end of your implant surgery via the guide-cannula, thereby guaranteeing that your optrode assembly will pass through your opsin-injected target. This innovative approach reduces mis-targeting errors within individual animals and ensures reduced animal use and wastage
Small footprint, lightweight and scalable to multi-target implants
The uniquely small-footprint of the nano-Drives facilitates implants targeting multiple brain regions, such as in the example rat shown below where orbitofrontal cortex in the right hemisphere and medial prefrontal cortex in the left hemisphere were implanted, each with a 32 channel silicon neural probe. Note the small overall size of the implant; a benefit for your animals and their behavior. Click here to see real-time data from this animal. Also shown is a 16-channel probe implant in a mouse... with our new miniature digital headstages you can now implement a 64 channel implant with the same footprint!
A four-shank 64 channel probe with co-aligned fiber cannula smoothly penetrating rodent cortex [Courtesy of Maxym Myroshnychenko, Lab of Christopher Lapish, Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis, USA.]
