I-Corps: Electrostimulation-based process that uses weak alternative electric fields to stimulate and activate hair follicles in the scalp

这个I-Corps项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发可穿戴电刺激毛发生长帽。柔性和可穿戴纳米发电机的拟议开发旨在从相关的身体运动为可穿戴电子设备供电。我们的目标是能够绕过目前阻碍许多电子治疗设备向可穿戴系统发展的笨重和刚性的电池系统。它可能会导致一种平台技术，提供自供电和闭环电子器件，作为一种新的可穿戴或植入式解决方案，用于实现各种生物医学功能，如健康监测，信息收集和提供治疗。 此外，自供电闭环电刺激帽可以成为治疗困扰全球范围内广泛年龄范围的许多人的脱发问题的有效解决方案，预计2024年全球市场为120亿美元。电刺激技术直接将随机人体运动的生物力学能量转换为连续的电脉冲，而不涉及任何电池或调节电子器件。由于其独特的能源和脉冲双相电的形式，直接应用产生的电力来实现某些治疗性治疗可能对头发生长有效。该技术与其他电池驱动设备的区别在于直接将生物医学功能与生物力学能源耦合，形成能量流和功能反馈的闭环。在这样的闭环电刺激中，刺激自动响应于相应的身体运动并且与相应的身体运动同步，并且因此在没有外部操纵的情况下施加有效的治疗效果。成功的临床前结果已被证明是自供电电刺激毛发再生大鼠和裸鼠。此外，研究结果显示，该技术改善了与毛囊生长相关的几种关键生长因子的分泌，缓解了头发角蛋白紊乱，增加了活跃毛囊的数量。这项技术可以带来一个可穿戴的，方便的，安全的，和成本效益的解决方案，使电刺激治疗，以扭转秃头。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of a wearable electrostimulation hair growth cap. The proposed development of flexible and wearable nanogenerator aims at powering wearable electronic devices from relevant body motions. The goal is to enable the possibility of bypassing the bulky and rigid battery systems that currently hinder the evolution of many electronic therapeutic devices toward a wearable system. It may lead to a platform technology providing self-powered and closed-loop electronics as a new wearable or implantable solution for achieving a variety of biomedical functions, such as health monitoring, information gathering, and providing therapeutic treatments. Further, the self-powered, closed-loop electrostimulation cap may become an effective solution to cure the hair loss problem that plagues many human beings across a broad age range worldwide with an anticipated global market of $12 billion in 2024.This I-Corps project is based on the development of a self-powered, electrostimulation technology that directly converts biomechanical energy from random human body motions into continuous electric pulses without involving any battery or regulative electronics. Due to its unique energy resource and pulsed bi-phasic electricity form, directly applying the generated electricity to achieve certain therapeutic treatments may becomes effective for hair growth. This technology is distinguished from other battery-driven devices by directly coupling the biomedical functions with biomechanical energy sources, forming a closed loop of both energy flow and function feedback. In such a closed-loop electrostimulation, the stimulations are automatically responsive and synchronized to corresponding body motions, and thus impose efficient therapeutic effects without external manipulations. Successful pre-clinical results have been demonstrated self-powered electrostimulation hair regrowth on rats and nude mice. In addition, the results showed that the technology improved the secretion of a few key growth factors related to hair follicle growth, alleviating hair keratin disorder, and increasing the number of active hair follicles. The proposed technology may bring a wearable, convenient, safe, and cost effective solution to enable electrostimulation treatments to reverse baldness.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.