CAREER: Multisensory Soft Bioelectronics for Comprehensive Monitoring of Gastrointestinal Physiological Interplay

肠道，或胃肠道，被广泛认为是我们的“第二大脑”，代表着人体最复杂的生理系统，具有复杂的生物化学和生物力学：(1)肠道生物化学：它是数万亿微生物的家园，这些微生物不仅将饮食转化为关键的营养物质，而且还释放各种神经递质（如血清素）和激素，对我们的身心健康产生显著影响。(2)肠道生物力学：它有多个肌肉层，这些肌肉层同步拉伸和收缩，产生多样化的肠道运动模式，用于消化和营养吸收。肠道生物化学和生物力学之间复杂的相互作用构成了胃肠道系统的基本生理学。这些过程的失调可导致各种神经、免疫和肠道疾病。然而，由于生物组织与传统电子元件的机械不匹配，研究这一系列具有多种运动模式的柔软、拉伸、长、扭转器官之间复杂的生理相互调节一直是一个挑战。该项目旨在通过开发一种柔软的多感官生物电子设备来填补这一关键技术空白，该设备提供强大而亲密的组织耦合，同时在连续的肠道运动中保持其生化和生物力学传感功能。结果将是新的生物数据，以促进我们对肠道生理学的基本理解，血清素动力学和肠道运动之间的相互作用，以及新的生物电工具来诊断和治疗消化和神经系统疾病。该项目旨在扩大年轻人对工程的参与，特别强调代表性不足的少数民族和女学生。这将通过一个全面的教育计划来实现，其中包括各种引人入胜的活动，包括K-12学生和教师的电子和机器人暑期课程，本科研究项目和设计课程，以及科学和艺术节演示。该CAREER提案旨在整合非常规电子材料和器件设计、创新微加工方法、无线硬件和计算方法，开发一种新型高性能多感官软生物电子学，能够同时监测肠道生化释放和物理运动，同时将对生物系统的扰动降至最低。该多感官生物电子设备旨在解码肠道血清素和肠道运动的相互作用，将整合：(1)用于高分辨率肠道血清素检测和制图的新型软生物传感器阵列，(2)用于高性能肠道运动监测的新型软物理传感器阵列，以及(3)用于自由运动动物数据记录和传输的可植入无线集成电路以及用于新产生的生物数据分析的计算方法。由于具有多模态传感和机械柔软性，由此产生的生物电子设备将提供强大而亲密的组织耦合，同时在自然状态下的连续肠道运动中保持其高性能的生化和生物力学传感功能。从长远来看，这里描述的新的生物电子工具不仅将在电气材料和生物传感方面产生新的知识，而且还将为研究肠道生理学和微生物-肠-脑通讯提供新的见解，可能导致诊断和治疗各种神经和消化系统疾病的新工具。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The gut, or gastrointestinal tract, widely regarded as our “second brain,” represents the body’s most sophisticated physiological system with complicated biochemistry and biomechanics: (1) Gut biochemistry: it is the home to trillions of microbes that not only transform the diet into key nutrients but also release a variety of neurotransmitters (such as serotonin) and hormones, exerting a marked influence on our physical and mental health. (2) Gut biomechanics: it has multiple muscle layers that stretch and contract synchronously to produce a diverse gut motility pattern for digestion and nutrition absorption. The complex interplay between the gut’s biochemistry and biomechanics constitutes the fundamental physiology of the gastrointestinal system. Dysregulation of these processes can lead to diverse neurological, immune, and bowel disorders. However, studying the complicated physiological inter-regulation in such a series of soft, stretchy, long, and twisting organs with a variety of motility patterns has been a long-standing challenge due to the mechanical mismatch between the biological tissue and conventional electronic components. This project seeks to fill this critical technology gap by developing a soft multisensory bioelectronic device that provides robust and intimate tissue coupling while maintaining its biochemical and biomechanical sensing function during continuous gut motion. The outcomes will be new biodata to spur our fundamental understanding of gut physiology, the interplay between serotonin dynamics and gut motility, as well as new bioelectric tools to diagnose and treat digestive and neurological disorders. This project aims to broaden the participation of young people in engineering, with a particular emphasis on underrepresented minorities and female students. This will be achieved through a comprehensive education plan with a variety of engaging activities, including K-12 student and teacher summer programs on electronics and robotics, undergraduate research programs and design-focused courses, and science and art festival demonstrations.This CAREER proposal aims to integrate unconventional electronic materials and device design, innovative microfabrication methods, wireless hardware, and computational methods, to develop a new type of high-performance multisensory soft bioelectronics capable of simultaneously monitoring gut biochemical release and physical motion with minimized perturbation to the biological system. The proposed multisensory bioelectronic device, with the goal of decoding the gut serotonin and motility interplay, will integrate: (1) A new soft biosensor array for high-resolution gut serotonin detection and mapping, (2) A new soft physical sensor array for high-performance gut motility monitoring, and (3) An implantable wireless integrated circuit for data recording and transmission in freely moving animals and computational methods for the newly produced biodata analysis. With multimodal sensing and mechanical softness, the resulting bioelectronic device will provide robust and intimate tissue coupling while maintaining its high-performance biochemical and biomechanical sensing function during continuous gut motion at its natural state. In the long term, the new bioelectronic tool described here will not only generate new knowledge in electrical materials and biosensing but also provide new insights into studying gut physiology and microbiota–gut–brain communication, potentially leading to new tools to diagnose and treat various neurological and digestive diseases.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.