Cort H. Thompson, PhD

Implantable neural technologies have great potential to advance neuroscience research in the lab and to treat disease and injury in the clinic. One application of implantable neural interfaces is the modulation of chronic pain, which is a significant and often debilitating medical issue. Dr. Thompson's work focuses on the fabrication of multi-modal microelectrodes which can be implanted into the nervous system for electrophysiological detection, electrochemical sensing, and neuromodulation. These multi-modal interfaces can be used to investigate the mechanisms of pain, disease, and injury in the nervous system at multiple levels so that new therapeutic approaches can be developed for translational use. He also aims to synthesize genomics and molecular neuroscience with neural interface fabrication to study the tissue response to implanted electrodes so that future designs can be increasingly biocompatible and create a more seamless and longer lasting interface between host biology and implanted neural technologies. By creating highly biocompatible neural technologies, it will be possible to more efficiently translate neural technologies into the clinic and provide patients with long-lasting medical technologies that will significantly improve their quality of life.