The circuit board manufacturing startup uFab and the Neurotech Hub at Washington University have joined forces to rapidly provide custom devices for the neuroscience community in St. Louis. Their collaboration enables the Neurotech Hub to produce printed circuit boards (PCBs) in house at the new Neuroscience Research Building at Washington University School of Medicine. PCBs have myriad applications in neuroscience research, from recording cellular activity in the brain to modeling neuronal circuitry.
“With this partnership, we will have exotic substrate manufacturing under our roof, not only for PCBs but even opening the door to novel microfluidic devices,” said Matt Gaidica, PhD, Assistant Professor of Neuroscience at Washington University and Director of the Neurotech Hub. “So instead of it taking days or weeks to prototype a device, we will have it quickly available for testing.”
The Neurotech Hub opened its doors this year as a resource for neuroscientists to advance their research through technological innovations. The Hub provides custom design and engineering services of hardware and software tools and is already creating tailored devices to optimize experiments. The collaboration with uFab promotes the use of domestic and hyper-local expert integration and training services to implement emerging tech at the Neurotech Hub. The relationship also forges a fluid partnership for outsourcing large-volume projects or building other customized solutions.