Dr Eduard Masvidal Codina wins a CERCA Pioneer Award 2021 for his doctoral thesis

by Virginia Greco

His research on graphene microtransistors for neural interfaces was directed by ICN2 group leader ICREA Prof. José Garrido and by Dr Anton Guimerá (IMB-CNM, CSIC).

Dr Eduard Masvidal Codina, currently postdoctoral researcher in the ICN2 Advanced Electronic Materials and Devices Group, led by ICREA Prof. José A. Garrido, has been assigned a CERCA Pioneer Award 2021 for his PhD thesis titled "Graphene microtransistors: a wide-bandwidth technology for recording brain field potentials". Dr Masvidal Codina carried out this research under the tutorship of Prof. Garrido (ICN2) and Dr Anton Guimerà (IMB-CNM, CSIC).

The jury considered that the thesis, which develops flexible neural interfaces based on graphene transistors (gSGFETs) and studies their use for recording neural activity, comparing them with current state-of-the-art technologies, shows an implementation of the technology with a great impact on its application segment.

The results obtained demonstrate that the gSGFETs technology developed in this work is mature and ready to be adopted by research laboratories, with a special potential for basic translational and preclinical research. Likewise, further technological development focused on the clinical translation of the devices could provide patients with the benefits of improved monitoring of brain physiology.

A CERCA Pioneer Award 2021 was also assigned to Dr Damià Viana, who carried out his research under the tutorship of Prof. Antonio Garrido as well, and to Dr Patricia Ramírez Priego, whose thesis project was coordinated by Prof. Laura Lechuga, leader of the ICN2 NanoBiosensors and Bioanalytical Applications Group.

The jury was composed of: Melba Navarro, Technology Transfer Expert at CIMNE Tecnologia; Nadia Pons, Director of the Health Entrepreneurship Program at the Barcelona Medical Association; Núria Martí, Director of Innovation at Biocat; Manuel Palacín, Director of The Collider programme at Mobile World Capital Barcelona; Julià Manzanas, Regional Business Development Manager for Southern Europe at AREOPA Group International and President of the Knowledge Economy and Innovation Committee of the Col-legi d'Economistes de Catalunya; and Joan Sansaloni, Head of the Industrial and Intellectual Property unit at ACCIÓ.

The award ceremony will take place on 20 December at 12pm in an online format on the CERCA YouTube channel.