Software
Research software
Open research tools and computational models developed by Neural Interface Laboratory.
TOP
The Optothermal Photonic retinal prosthesis
TOP is a computational framework for studying gold-nanorod-mediated near-infrared photothermal neural stimulation. It links optical absorption and nanoscale heat generation to temperature-dependent membrane currents and neuronal excitation, providing a mechanistic bridge from photothermal physics to neural response.
From photothermal stimulation to a retinal prosthesis
The retinal-prosthesis motivation is illustrated by our later work in ACS Nano (2025), where intravitreally delivered plasmonic nanorods were combined with patterned near-infrared illumination. The study demonstrated localized retinal activation and visually evoked cortical responses, supporting photothermal nanomaterials as a minimally invasive route toward spatially patterned retinal stimulation.
“Intravitreally Injected Plasmonic Nanorods Activate Bipolar Cells with Patterned Near-Infrared Laser Projection.”
ACS Nano, 2025, 19(12), 11823–11840.
Integrated biophysical model
The main software accompanies our Biophysical Journal (2018) study. The MATLAB implementation calculates NIR absorption and heat generation around gold nanorods, the resulting membrane-temperature dynamics, temperature-dependent TRPV1 current, heat-induced capacitive current, and the final membrane-potential response through a modified Hodgkin–Huxley model.
“Theoretical Study on Gold-Nanorod-Enhanced Near-Infrared Neural Stimulation.”
Biophysical Journal, 2018, 115(8), 1481–1497.
Software access and citation
The original MATLAB scripts were deposited by Kyungsik Eom and Jonghwan Lee in the Brown Digital Repository for public access. The DOI below is the canonical software record and should be used as the primary download source.