Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory



Vanessa Tolosa

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Principal Investigator
Center for Micro and Nano Technology
Materials Engineering Division

  • Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, 2009
  • M.S., Chemical Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, 2005
  • B.S., Chemical Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 2002
Phone: (925) 423-9311
E-mail: tolosa1@llnl.gov

Research Interests

  • Electrode material development and characterization: iridium, electrochemically deposited iridium oxide (EIROF)
    and activated (AIROF), high-surface area platinum, PEDOT, novel materials
  • Electrochemical characterization: cyclic voltammetry, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy,
    differential pulse voltammetry
  • Electrochemical biosensors: electroenzymatic, amperometric; pH, dopamine, glucose, glutamate, acetylcholine
  • Neural interfaces: electrocorticography (ECoG), spinal cord stimulation, deep brain stimulation (DBS),
    auditory prostheses, retinal prostheses
  • Chemical functionalization of microelectrode arrays: conducting polymers, polymers, enzyme immobilization,
    electroplated metals, implantable drug delivery and sensing devices

Selected Publications

K. G. Shah, K. Y. Lee, V. Tolosa, A. Tooker, S. Felix, W. Benett, S. Pannu. "Chronic, Percutaneous Connector for Electrical Recording and Stimulation with Microelectrode Arrays" 36th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Aug 2014, Accepted.

K. G. Shah, K. Y. Lee, V. Tolosa, A. Tooker, S. Felix, S. Pannu. "Diffusion-bonded Electrodes for Chronic Neural Stimulation" 36th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Aug 2014, Accepted.

A. Tooker, D. Liu, E. Anderson, S. Felix, K. G. Shah, K. Y. Lee, S. Pannu, L. Frank, V. Tolosa. "Towards a Large-Scale Recording System: Demonstration of Polymer-Based Penetrating Array for Chronic Neural Recording" 36th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Aug 2014, Accepted.

A. Tooker, T. Madsen, A. Crowell, K. G. Shah, S. Felix, H. Mayberg, S. Pannu, D. Rainnie, V. Tolosa. "Chronic, multi-contact neural interface for deep brain stimulation," The 6th International IEEE EMBS Conference on Neural Engineering, November 2013.

A. Tooker, T. Madsen, A. Yorita, A. Crowell, K. G. Shah, S. Felix, H. Mayberg, S. Pannu, D. Rainnie, V. Tolosa. "Microfabricated polymer-based neural interface for electrical stimulation/recording, drug delivery, and chemical sensing-development," 35th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, July 2013.

K. G. Shah, V. Tolosa, A. Tooker, S. Felix, S. Pannu. "Improved chronic neural stimulation using high surface area platinum electrodes," 35th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, July 2013.

Tolosa, V., K. Wassum, N. Maidment, H. Monbouquette, "Electrochemically deposited iridium oxide as an on-probe reference electrode with glutamate sensor on a multi-electrode array," Biosensors and Bioelectronics, 42, 2013, p256-260.

Tolosa, V., K. Wassum, J. Wang, E. Walker, H. Monbouquette, N. Maidment, "Silicon wafer-based platinum microelectrode array biosensor for near real-time measurement of glutamate in vivo," Sensors, 8, 2008, p. 5023-5036. *co-first authors.

K. Wassum, V. Tolosa, T. Tseng, H. Monbouquette, N. Maidment, "Transient extracellular glutamate events in the basolateral amygdala track reward-seeking actions," Journal of Neuroscience, 32 (8), 2012, p. 2747-2761.

A. Tooker, V. Tolosa, K. G. Shah, H. Sheth, S. Felix, T. Delima, S. Pannu. "Optimization of Multi-Layer Metal Neural Probe Design," 34th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, August 2012.

A. Tooker, V. Tolosa, K. G. Shah, H. Sheth, S. Felix, T. Delima, S. Pannu. "Polymer Neural Interface with Dual-Sided Electrodes for Neural Stimulation and Recording," 34th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, August 2012.

N. Hamdi, V. Tolosa, H. Monbouquette, A. Rahy, D.J. Yang, "An electrochemical dopamine sensor based on a flexible conductive film of single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) on PET," ASME Conference Proceedings, 2010, p. 75-76.

UCTV presentation: "Restoring Sight to the Blind: Bridging the Medical Gap with Science"

Professional Memberships

American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE)
Society for Neuroscience (SfN)
Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES)
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)

Honors and Awards

National Academy of Engineering Japan-America Frontiers of Engineering (JAFOE) participant, 1 of 30 invited engineers from the U.S.