ASCENT: BioNet: A distributed network of bioelectronic devices for closed-loop control of physiological processes

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Bioelectronics promises to dramatically improve human health and performance by sensing and affecting local tissue and organ function in a personalized and highly controlled manner which is not possible with traditional materials and medications. Furthermore, the way that biological systems of the body communicate requires sensing and/or stimulation at physically separated locations, necessitating a “distributed” network of bioelectronic components. To achieve this vision key barriers must be overcome, including unreliable wireless communication with implanted devices through tissue, rejection of engineered devices by the body, and integration. This project will realize a distributed bioelectronic network, or “BioNet”, of miniature, free-standing devices to overcome these challenges, and will demonstrate its utility for repairing nerve injuries. BioNet will develop new electrically conducting biomaterials, and miniaturized tools for powering and transmitting data wirelessly. This project will contribute to societal needs through improved quality of life and well-being and will result in reduced pain, faster functional recovery from peripheral nerve injury, and reduced loss in productivity due to injury. Beyond tissue regeneration and functional restoration, BioNet could contribute more broadly to other areas of medicine, for example, the long-term treatment and therapy of neurological disorders. This proposal will develop a biohybrid bioelectronic distributed network bridging scales (materials, devices, circuits, and systems) and disciplines. The BioNet, with millimeter-scale magneto-electric motes (MagMotes), will seamlessly integrate into regenerating tissues to provide functional biomarkers and therapeutic stimuli in order to affect physiological states. This project thus creates new knowledge and technology towards the bioelectronic system by bringing together diverse disciplines in a convergence research framework. A co-design strategy enables rational for material iteration/discovery, balances physical and practical limitations with hardware/software limitations and reconciles design constraints with application/end user needs. The project will advance materials and methods for tissue-integrated conducting polymer allograft composites. It will deliver a novel approach towards wireless power and low-power data transfer using magnetoelectrics and custom CMOS circuits. These ultra-low-power CMOS circuits and systems will enhance robustness and stability, reduce calibration efforts, and improve fabrication yield. The co-designed BioNet will result in a peripheral nerve injury bioelectronic system capable of biohybrid stimulation and real time diagnostics of nerve regeneration progress, needed in order to form the basis of a closed loop system. The broader impacts for the scientific and engineering community are the establishment of a platform that can be used as a tool to study biological mechanisms underlying disease and dysfunction. By developing the hardware platform for distributed sensors and actuators the project will create a new paradigm for physiological control which will open new opportunities to develop and test concepts for distributed control theory.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.