Materials Horizons Emerging Investigator Series: Sahika Inal, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Xgb3soUAAAAJ&hl=en is an Assistant Professor of Bioengineering with affiliations in Electrical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). Prior to joining KAUST, she was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Bioelectronics at the Center of Microelectronics of Provence of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Saint-Étienne (France). She received her BSc degree in Textile Engineering from Istanbul Technical University in Turkey (2007), her MSc in Polymer Science (2009), and PhD in Experimental Physics (2013) from the University of Potsdam, Germany. Her MSc work dealt with optical processes in organic solar cells involving small molecule acceptors. During her doctoral studies, she developed phase transition polymer/conjugated polyelectrolyte based optical sensors for autonomous detection of pathogens. During her postdoctoral work, she developed implantable drug delivery devices and cell-loaded functional scaffolds. Her expertise is in polymer science and bioelectronic devices, particularly in photophysics of conjugated polymers, characterization of polymer thin films and the design of biosensors and actuators. She investigates ion/electron conduction in organic electronic materials and designs bioelectronic devices that can concurrently record and stimulate biological signals. In 2020, she shared her journal on how to conduct interdisciplinary research in a https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELMDmB-m5SE talk. Since 2016, she has lead the https://bioel.kaust.edu.sa/ group at KAUST.

Read Sahika Inal's Emerging Investigator Series article “Monitoring supported lipid bilayers with n-type organic electrochemical transistors” and read more about her in the interview below:

MH: Your recent Materials Horizons Communication reports the very first ion channel sensor based on an n-type, accumulation mode, microscale organic electrochemical transistor (OECT). How has your research evolved from your first article to this most recent article and where do you see your research going in future?

SI: My group has a special interest in n-type polymers and their applications in biology. I find these polymers (almost) perfect electronic materials to interface with living systems because of their natural ability to transport cations and electrons. Similarly, living systems rely on the generation and transport of electrons in a range of processes and they use cation fluxes for signal transmission. Besides these similarities, we can process electronic polymers easily and they get into various forms and shapes with flexibility and softness matching that of the interfacing tissue. While investigating fundamental mixed (ionic and electronic) transport properties of these materials, we have been always keeping an eye on candidates that can be coupled with living systems.

My first article as an independent investigator was published in 2018 in Journal of Materials Chemistry C (https://rsc.66557.net/en/content/articlehtml/2018/tc/c8tc02195c). That work investigated how mixed conductors swell with water and ions during their operation in a bioelectronic device, to come up with chemical design rules for efficient transduction of ionic charges into electronic ones. If an electronic material, such as the n-type polymer that we used in our latest work, can efficiently transduce ionic charges into electronic ones, then it has a lot of potential for biosensing applications which aim to detect such ionic, bio-originated charges. We have used the time since this first publication to learn more about the surface properties of n-type polymer films, which allowed us to interface them with proteins, cells or lipid bilayers. Understanding transport properties and surface chemistry of these films along with the knowledge of cellular transport phenomena have made the current discovery possible. I see that we have a lot to do to improve the charge transport properties of these polymers through processing, molecular dopants or chemical design. Once they reach their full potential, applications for biosensing and modulation are numerous. My current and future research focuses on understanding structure-performance relations of these materials and demonstrating how they can couple with living systems.

MH: What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment?

SI: Unfortunately, any continuation of this work had to stop due to the pandemic. However, the pandemic has also inspired new work. We have had a COVID-19 project ongoing in the lab ever since we managed to convert pandemic-related worries into ideas on how to contribute to a solution. We have developed a promising sensor involving proteins from my colleague's synthetic biology lab. Currently we are in the process of validating the sensor with patient samples and conventional instruments. Any success, but also failure, that will come out of this work will teach me a lot about biosensors, and eventually move us a step further as a team towards an actual biomedical device. This process excites me most.

MH: In your opinion, what are the most important questions to be asked/answered in this field of research?

SI: I believe in the observation by Tadahiro Sekimoto (Nippon Electric Corp.) that “Those who dominate materials dominate technology”, a quote I learned first from one of my postdoc advisors years ago. I therefore evaluate electrical properties and device performance of new families of organic materials to extract design rules so that new bioelectronic devices can be more functional and durable. To do so, I collaborate with top synthesis groups in the field and other scientists with complementary expertise. I think the most important questions concern the materials and devices required to interface lipid bilayers (or living systems in general) most efficiently to extract signals from them. Identifying these attributes and finding the material candidates and device architectures that exhibit these properties is the key to couple the worlds of biology and electronics. This coupling initiated through engineered materials will bring forth new biosensors to detect diseases and actuators with new therapeutic functions.

MH: What do you find most challenging about your research?

SI: The most challenging part is also the most fun for me! I design projects such that groups of people work as teams. Typically, members of a project team have different educational backgrounds, e.g. one biologist and one electrical engineer. Unsurprisingly, throwing them together into the lab with the same goal and expecting perfect communication without someone interpreting and translating concepts, ideas, and jargon between fields is a challenge. This language barrier takes time and patience to overcome. Once the students/postdocs learn how to communicate with one another and convey different concepts that they may not have formally been familiar to, the fun part starts. Their different points of views bring new aspects to the projects that I initially didn’t think of. Such aspects most of the time contribute to the novelty of each project. It is challenging but rewarding to work with students from different educational backgrounds and see their interdisciplinary language developing over time.

MH: In which upcoming conferences or events may our readers meet you?

SI: I love travelling and attending conferences. Before the pandemic, I was a regular at MRS Fall meetings and SPIE Organic Photonics and Electronics meetings. I am also involved in the organization of a Telluride workshop and a special Bioelectronics Symposium held every year in the Asilomar Conference Grounds. With the current travel restrictions, I hope that some events will be held online so that I can meet colleagues and readers of Materials Horizons and get to know about their recent work.

MH: How do you spend your spare time?

SI: I try to make time to explore the Red Sea by diving and snorkelling. When I don’t feel very water compatible, my favourite activities are listening to music, reading novels and poetry and spending time with my dog and family.

MH: Can you share one piece of career-related advice or wisdom with other early career scientists?

SI: I have not been shy or embarrassed in identifying things that I do not know and fields that I am weak at. The more I learn, the more I know how little I know. As I find out my strengths and weaknesses, I choose collaborations to complement certain skills (and of course some collaborations were built for mere scientific fun!) My humble advice would be, try to be the best in what you do, but never forget that there is always a lot to catch up and learn from others, hence keep your eyes and mind open!

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