EFRI-BioFlex: A Flexible Glucose Fuel Cell

EFRI-BioFlex：灵活的葡萄糖燃料电池

• 批准号: 1606406
• 负责人: Rahul Sarpeshkar
• 金额: $ 95.73万
• 依托单位: Dartmouth College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-11-01 至 2018-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1606406&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EFRI; BioFlex; Flexible; Glucose; Fuel

This proposal attempts to create a flexible glucose fuel cell and associated ultra-low-power bioelectronics for self-powered brain implants of the future. The flexible glucose fuel cell enables a 20x increase in volumetric density with 320 uW of power available from a biocompatible 1cm (d) x 4 cm (l) device, which is implanted in the subarachnoid spaces of the brain and spinal cord. Thus, fully implantable brain implants for paralysis with novel state-of-the-art ultra-low-power electronics for neural recording, stimulation, decoding, and wireless communication, which consume 95 uW in total, can be powered with a safety factor of 3x that allows for fuel-cell output variation over time. This proposal attempts to test a fully functional brain-implant system in a smaller geometry 3 mm (d) x 3mm (l) device in a rat to ensure chronic ( 6 months) long-term biocompatibility and performance that meets our power budget. The use of the cerebrospinal fluid as a power source, which has a 200x lower protein count, and almost million-fold lower cell count, and only a 2x lower glucose content, provides a novel site for implantation significantly different from prior work in blood plasma or interstitial fluid. This novel intended site of implantation along with our use of materials and techniques that have been proven to increase biocompatibility, such as Nafion encapsulation, enhance longevity. The flexible glucose fuel cell will be fabricated using well-known semiconductor fabrication techniques on a silicon wafer enabling manufacturing scalability and ease of integration with electronics on the same wafer. Intellectual Merit: This work combines innovations and knowledge from several disciplines to potentially create a paradigm-changing capability in the field of medical implants: 1) Prior enzyme-based glucose fuel cells have been plagued by enzyme-degradation issues that have led them to be inefficient after a few short-term months. Abiotic fuel cells are more suited for long-term chronic operation but have relatively low power outputs. The creation of an abiotic flexible glucose fuel cell increases the volumetric density of available power by more than an order of magnitude while preserving the benefits of long-term abiotic operation. 2) The use of ultra-low-power bioelectronics that achieves state-of-the-art performance in all aspects of a brain-implant system enables miniature glucose fuel cells to meet the power budget needed for intended medical applications with even a safety factor of 3x and to fit within tightly constrained body spaces. 3) The use of standard semiconductor fabrication techniques enables entire flexible medical implants with their own power source and electronics to be cheaply fabricated in a rolled-up geometry without sacrificing performance as in systems made with flexible organic electronics. 4) The glucose-rich cerebrospinal fluid is highly abiotic (free of cells) and highly protein free making it an ideal source for providing fuel while not causing electrode bio-fouling. This work could enable glucose fuel cells to become practical after four decades of research.Broader Impact:Glucose fuel cells have use in the treatments of cardiac arrhythmia, diabetes, epilepsy, deep brain disorders, and cancer tumor monitoring. Rolled-up ?sugar powered batteries? may be used in non-invasive wireless medical monitoring or in wearable and flexible electronic systems. The flexible glucose fuel cell can help solve a national challenge for non-toxic (unlike batteries), renewable, carbon-neutral, energy sources that are practical. The PI plans to introduce an in-vitro glucose-fuel-cell powered ECG as a project in his course in bioelectronics at MIT that has been taught for over 10 years at MIT The Research Team further plans to develop a module that will use microfluidic setup to monitor output protein concentrations in cells at the fuel-cell output voltages and introduce the platform to the do-it-yourself community at MIT through programs such as Lifelong Kindergarten and ?Science Saturday? at Lincoln Lab. The PI plans to recruit under-represented students from his active participation in the admissions programs of the Computational and Systems Biology, Biophysics, Synthetic Biology, and Bioelectrical endeavors at MIT. The investigators will participate in SEED (Saturday Engineering Enrichment and Discovery) Academy, which enrolls students from Boston, Cambridge, and Lawrence Public Schools; they will also work closely with the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) to attract promising young women into biomedical and bioengineering research; and, they will work actively with the MIT Summer Research Program (MSRP), which has traditionally included underrepresented students into research programs. Thus the proposal will have broad technical impact, broad educational impact, and broaden societal participation.

这项提议试图创造一种灵活的葡萄糖燃料电池和相关的超低功耗生物电子设备，用于未来的自供电大脑植入物。这种灵活的葡萄糖燃料电池可以使体积密度增加20倍，其功率为320 uW，来自一个生物相容性的1cm (d) x 4cm (l)的装置，该装置被植入大脑和脊髓的蛛网膜下腔。因此，用于瘫痪的完全植入式大脑植入物配备了最先进的超低功耗电子设备，用于神经记录、刺激、解码和无线通信，总功耗为95 uW，其供电安全系数为3倍，允许燃料电池输出随时间变化。该提案试图在大鼠体内测试一个更小的几何尺寸为3mm (d) x 3mm (l)的大脑植入系统，以确保慢性（6个月）长期生物相容性和性能满足我们的功率预算。使用脑脊液作为动力源，其蛋白质计数降低了200倍，细胞计数降低了近百万倍，葡萄糖含量仅降低了2倍，这为植入提供了一个新的位置，与之前在血浆或间质液中的工作有显著不同。这种新颖的植入部位以及我们使用的材料和技术已经被证明可以提高生物相容性，如Nafion胶囊，可以延长寿命。柔性葡萄糖燃料电池将采用著名的半导体制造技术在硅片上制造，使制造可扩展性和易于与同一硅片上的电子设备集成。智力优势：这项工作结合了来自多个学科的创新和知识，有可能在医疗植入领域创造一种改变范式的能力：1)先前的酶基葡萄糖燃料电池一直受到酶降解问题的困扰，导致它们在几个月后效率低下。非生物燃料电池更适合长期慢性操作，但功率输出相对较低。一种非生物柔性葡萄糖燃料电池的创建增加了可用功率的体积密度超过一个数量级，同时保留了长期非生物操作的好处。2)超低功耗生物电子学的使用在脑植入系统的各个方面都达到了最先进的性能，使微型葡萄糖燃料电池能够满足预期医疗应用所需的功率预算，甚至安全系数为3倍，并且能够适应严格限制的身体空间。3)使用标准的半导体制造技术，使得整个柔性医疗植入物具有自己的电源和电子器件，可以在卷起来的几何形状中廉价地制造，而不会牺牲柔性有机电子系统的性能。4)富含葡萄糖的脑脊液是高度非生物的（无细胞）和高度无蛋白质的，使其成为提供燃料的理想来源，同时不会引起电极生物污染。经过40年的研究，这项工作可能使葡萄糖燃料电池成为现实。更广泛的影响：葡萄糖燃料电池用于治疗心律失常、糖尿病、癫痫、深部脑疾病和癌症肿瘤监测。卷起来的?糖动力电池？可用于非侵入式无线医疗监测或可穿戴和柔性电子系统。灵活的葡萄糖燃料电池可以帮助解决国家面临的一项挑战，即无毒（与电池不同）、可再生、碳中性、实用的能源。PI计划在麻省理工学院的生物电子学课程中引入一个体外葡萄糖燃料电池供电的ECG项目，该项目已经在麻省理工学院教授了10多年。研究小组进一步计划开发一个模块，该模块将使用微流体装置来监测燃料电池输出电压下细胞中的输出蛋白质浓度，并通过终身幼儿园和？科学周六?在林肯实验室。PI计划从他积极参与麻省理工学院计算与系统生物学、生物物理学、合成生物学和生物电学的招生项目中招收代表性不足的学生。研究人员将参加SEED（周六工程充实和发现）学院，该学院招收来自波士顿、剑桥和劳伦斯公立学校的学生；她们还将与女工程师协会（SWE）密切合作，吸引有前途的年轻女性参与生物医学和生物工程研究；并且，他们将积极参与麻省理工学院暑期研究项目（MSRP），该项目传统上包括代表性不足的学生参加研究项目。因此，该提案将产生广泛的技术影响，广泛的教育影响，并扩大社会参与。