My Research Project: Testing Methods to Direct Neuronal Growth

So what exactly am I doing at the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna?
My research project proposal is entitled The Pied Piper of the Peripheral Nervous System: Comparing Guidance Cues for Directing Neuronal Growth. This sums up pretty well what I am doing. The abstract of my proposal reads as follows:

The future of prosthetic devices lies in their integration into the body’s nervous system. The next generation of prosthetics, called neural prosthetics, will enable patients to move prosthetic devices using their minds and will recreate feeling through sensors in the mechanical limbs. The greatest challenge arises in connecting the peripheral nervous system and the prosthetic. The regenerating neurons in an amputated limb must be guided towards an implanted electrode so they communicate efficiently with the prosthetic. Researchers have already reported several different methods to direct neuronal growth, but I have found no published work which compares their efficacy. This summer, I will test the use of chemical, physical, and optical guidance cues to quantitatively compare these methods for directing growth in vitro. I hope to provide knowledge necessary for researchers to optimize the design of neural prosthetics. This new technology promises to vastly improve the lives of amputees.

Hopefully this gives you a bit of an idea as to why I'm here. If you're still curious, I'm only an email away.