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Sahika Inal

Associate Professor, Bioengineering

Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering Division

sahika.inal@kaust.edu.sa
Organic Bioelectronics Laboratory


Affiliations

Education Profile

  • Postdoctoral Fellow, Bioelectronics, Ecole Nationale Superieure des Mines de Saint Etienne, France, 2016.
  • Ph.D. Experimental Physics, University of Potsdam (UP), Germany, 2013.
  • M.Sc. Polymer Science, TU, HU, FU Berlin, UP, Germany, 2009.
  • B.Sc. Textile Engineering, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey, 2007.

Research Interests

​Dr. Inal's research is in the area of bioelectronics. Her research interests cover organic electronic materials and devices that can address research and clinical health monitoring and therapy needs. She is particularly interested in ionic-electronic conduction in organic electronic materials and explores the potential of these materials for recording small biological signals and modulating biological events. She aims to design electronic devices that can efficiently interface with the human body. She has been involved in projects on (i) the design of a polymer-based optical sensor for fast diagnostics of pathogens, (ii) a conducting polymer scaffold for 3D cell culture, (iii) integrating lipid bilayers with electrochemical transistors and (iv) the development of an electrophoretic device embedded with sensing components that stops epileptiform activity through localized drug delivery. 

Selected Publications

  • Savva, T R. Hallani, C. Cendra, J. Surgailis, T. C. Hidalgo, S. Wustoni, R. Sheelamanthula, X. Chen, M. Kirkus, A. Giovannitti, A. Salleo, I. McCulloch, S. Inal. "Balancing Ionic and Electronic Conduction for High-Performance Organic Electrochemical Transistors", Advanced Functional Materials, 2020, 30, 1907657.
  • D. Ohayon, G. Nikiforidis, A. Savva, A. Guigni, S. Wustoni, T. Palanisamy, X. Chen, I. P. Maria, E. Di Fabrizio, P.M. F. J. Costa, I. McCulloch, S. Inal. "Biofuel Powered Glucose Detection in Bodily Fluids with an n-type Conjugated Polymer", Nature Materials, 2019 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563
  • S. Wustoni, C. Combe, D. Ohayon, M. H. Akhtar, I. McCulloch, S. Inal "Membrane‐Free Detection of Metal Cations with an Organic Electrochemical Transistor", Advanced Functional Materials, 2019, 29 (44), 1904403.
  • S. Wustoni, S. Wang, J. R. Alvarez, T. C. Hidalgo, S. P. Nunes, S. Inal "An organic electrochemical transistor integrated with a molecularly selective isoporous membrane for amyloid-β detection", Biosensors and Bioelectronics, 2019, 143, 111561.
  • A.M. Pappa, D. Ohayon, A. Giovannitti, I. P. Maria, A. Savva, I. Uguz, J. Rivnay, I.McCulloch, R. Owens, S. Inal "Direct metabolite detection with an n-type accumulation mode organic electrochemical transistor", Science Advances 2018, 4 (6), eaat0911.
  • J. Rivnay, S. Inal, R. M. Owens, A. Salleo, M. Berggren, G. G. Malliaras, "Organic Electrochemical Transistors", Nature Review Materials 2018, 3, 17086.