ERC Starting Grant · 2022
Synthetic Neurons and Artificial Photoactivated Synapses
The brain is a complex network of inter-connected neurons that communicate through synapses. SYNAPS aims to for the first time mimic such synapses using liposomes as artificial cells, and visible light to trigger a signal from a ‘sender’- to a ‘receiver’-liposome. Mimicking such communication processes will help with understanding how complex natural emergent properties arise, and could ultimately allow for the construction of a chemical computer. SYNAPS will excel beyond the state-of-the-art by maintaining chemical isolation between liposome interiors, ensuring local, time-bound communication between connected liposomes, and using light as an external stimulus and fuel. These concepts are…
From the public funding record at EU CORDIS. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.