CAREER: Advanced Bioelectromagnetics for Wireless Biomedical Devices

随着无线通信、医学和生物兼容电子学的发展，需要探索将信息技术和生物电磁学无缝结合起来开发可无线移植的生物医学设备的新想法。生物电磁现象是所有生物组织所固有的重要功能，深入了解体内电磁场和外部电磁场与人体的耦合是21世纪新生物医学设备发展的重要挑战。该提议的目的是通过将宏观和微观尺度的现象整合在一起，为开发用于生物医学应用的新型无线经皮电磁设备带来根本性的进展。这项研究将从开发合适的天线系统开始，用于人体内外单元之间的功率和数据遥测，以达到理解感应和自发电信号如何在生物医学设备的开发中得到充分利用的水平。人体内外源和内源电磁场的宏观相互作用将与微生物电磁模型相结合，重点是在细胞和分子水平上表征暴露和激发的电活动。这些研究将有助于理解和阐明电磁场与生物组织相互作用的机制，并有可能应用于神经对电磁刺激的响应。基于全波时域有限差分的数值方法将用于这一完整的建模工作，并结合准静态方法对神经响应进行低频建模。测试开发的植入式无线链路性能的实验系统将被制造出来，而神经反应的计算模型将通过与约翰·霍普金斯大学的研究人员的合作得到验证。拟议的研究活动的影响将从开发视网膜前假体来恢复1000多万视障人士的视力，到开发用于感知癌症日常演变的无线设备。与约翰霍普金斯大学威尔默眼科研究所和生物医学公司的合作已经到位，以提供必要的医学帮助和专业知识。该项目将提供一个独特的研究环境，具有强大的跨学科和多机构合作，将为研究生和本科生提供前所未有的机会，接触21世纪的创新技术。新的教育方法旨在提供一个更广泛的面向系统的观点，电磁学和生物电磁学在今天和未来的技术中的作用，将追求使学生在他们的职业生涯早期接触到工程电磁学和生物电磁学的新的和及时的职业观点。

With advances in wireless communications, medicine, and biocompatible electronics, novel ideas toseamlessly integrate information technology and bioelectromagnetics toward the development of wirelessimplantable biomedical devices need to be explored. Bioelectromagnetic phenomena are intrinsic to thevital function of all living tissues, and a thorough understanding of both the internal electromagneticfields and the coupling of external electromagnetic fields to the human body represent a challenge thatwill significantly contribute to the development of new biomedical devices for the 21st century.The objective of this proposal is to bring about fundamental advances toward the development of novelwireless transcutaneous electromagnetic devices for biomedical applications by integrating in the sameframework macro- and micro-scale phenomena. The study will start from considering the development ofsuitable antenna systems for power and data telemetry between units internal and external to the humanbody, to reach the level of understanding how induced and spontaneous electrical signals can bemeaningfully used in the development of biomedical devices. Macro-scale interactions of exogenous andendogenous electromagnetic fields in the human body will be interfaced with microbioelectromagneticmodeling, with the focus on characterizing exposure and excited electrical activity at the cellular andmolecular level. Such studies will help in understanding and elucidating the mechanisms of interaction ofelectromagnetic fields with biological tissues, with potential applications to neural responses toelectromagnetic excitations.Full-wave Finite-Difference Time-Domain based numerical methods will be used for this completemodeling effort, with integration of quasi-static methods for the low frequency modeling of neuralresponses. Experimental systems to test the performance of the developed implantable wireless links willbe fabricated, while computational models of the neural responses will be validated through collaborationwith researchers at Johns Hopkins University.The impact of the proposed research activity will extend from the development of a epiretinal prosthesisto restore sight in over 10,000,000 visually impaired to the development of wireless devices for sensingthe daily evolution of cancer. Collaborations with the Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute and biomedicalcompanies are already in place to provide the necessary medical help and expertise.This project will offer a unique research environment with strong interdisciplinary and multi-institutionalcollaborations that will provide graduate and undergraduate students an unprecedented exposure toinnovative technologies for the 21st century. New educational approaches aimed to present a broadersystem-oriented view of the role of electromagnetics and bioelectromagnetics in today's and tomorrow'stechnology will be pursued to expose students early in their career to a new and timely perspective ofcareers in engineering electromagnetics and bioelectromagnetics.