Dr. Vitale research focuses on applying innovations in nanomaterial and nanofabrication to develop novel bioelectronic devices for recording and neuromodulation in the brain, spinal cord and peripheral nerves, with the aim of understanding and treating diseases such as Parkinson's, epilepsy, chronic pain, neural injury. Dr. Vitale develops soft, high resolution bidirectional microelectrodes for simultaneous recording and stimulation at the resolution of individual neurons, microfluidic-based strategies for minimally invasive implantation of these soft microelectrodes, and flexible, conformal 2D microarrays for high-density mapping of neural and muscular activation. Dr. Vitale research combines methods from nanomaterial processing and characterization, device fabrication, neuroscience and translational neuroengineering with the ultimate goal of improving patients health by translating research findings into therapeutic neuroprosthetic devices. In September 2019, Dr. Vitale was awarded the Interdisciplinary Rehabilitation Engineering Research Career Development Program, a special NIH K12 program dedicated to train engineers in rehabilitation sciences. Additional information regarding her research can be found here: http://cnt.upenn.edu/flavia-vitale