CAREER: Implantable multimodal bioelectronics for high-performance gastrointestinal monitoring and modulation

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Neurological disorders affect the quality of life of more than 100 million people worldwide. Historically, neurological disorders were viewed as brain-centric processes. Recent studies, however, have found that the physiological and biochemical factors in the gastrointestinal tract also influence the function of the central nervous system, so-called gut-brain axis. Despite its importance, there is a limited understanding of where, when, and how these physiological and biochemical factors in the gastrointestinal tract modulate diverse behavioral outputs of the brain. This is, in part, because of the limited technologies available for the high-performance modulation and monitoring of various information in the gastrointestinal tract. This project will create a new route to understand gut-brain bidirectional communication and associated neurological disorders by providing urgently needed technologies. The research will closely interact with the neuroscience community and actively translate the technology from the research bench to commercialization. The education program will attract underrepresented minorities and female students for bioelectronics research.This project aims to investigate a set of foundational materials, device design, and system integration problems for high-performance modulation and monitoring in the gastrointestinal tract of freely moving small animal models. This project includes three research objectives: (1) develop soft physiological and biochemical sensors for gastrointestinal monitoring, (2) study the water and ion transport properties of a new class of device encapsulation materials, and (3) establish and validate a wireless multimodal bioelectronic system for high-performance gastrointestinal monitoring and modulation. The research will significantly advance our currently limited knowledge of the design and development of multimodal bioelectronics for high-performance modulation and physiological and biochemical monitoring in the gastrointestinal tract. The bioelectronics design and new knowledge are expandable to other fields, including bioelectronics for wound healing, cardiac health, and urinary tract diseases, where continuous monitoring and modulation are needed.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.