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

肠道是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，不仅将饮食转化为关键营养物质，还释放各种神经递质(如5-羟色胺)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，这些肌肉层同时拉伸和收缩，产生不同的肠道运动模式，以利于消化和营养吸收。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，由于生物组织和传统电子元件之间的机械失配，研究这种具有各种运动模式的柔软、伸展、长和扭曲的器官中复杂的生理相互调节一直是一个长期存在的挑战。该项目旨在通过开发一种柔软的多传感生物电子设备来填补这一关键技术空白，该设备在连续的肠道运动中保持其生化和生物力学传感功能的同时，提供强大和亲密的组织耦合。结果将是新的生物数据，以促进我们对肠道生理学、5-羟色胺动力学和肠道动力之间的相互作用的基本了解，以及诊断和治疗消化和神经疾病的新生物电动工具。该项目旨在扩大年轻人对工程学的参与，特别重视代表性不足的少数群体和女学生。这将通过一个全面的教育计划实现，包括各种参与性活动，包括K-12学生和教师关于电子和机器人的暑期计划，本科研究计划和以设计为重点的课程，以及科学和艺术节演示。这项职业计划旨在整合非传统电子材料和设备设计、创新的微制造方法、无线硬件和计算方法，开发一种新型的高性能多感官软生物电子学，能够在最大限度地减少对生物系统的扰动的情况下，同时监测肠道生化释放和物理运动。拟议的多传感生物电子设备的目标是解码肠道5-羟色胺和运动相互作用，将集成：(1)用于高分辨率肠道5-羟色胺检测和映射的新的软生物传感器阵列，(2)用于高性能肠道运动监测的新的软物理传感器阵列，以及(3)用于在自由活动的动物中记录和传输数据的植入式无线集成电路以及新产生的生物数据分析的计算方法。凭借多模式传感和机械柔软性，所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期间保持其高性能的生化和生物力学传感功能。从长远来看，这里描述的新生物电子工具不仅将产生电气材料和生物传感方面的新知识，还将为研究肠道生理学和微生物-肠道-大脑通信提供新的见解，可能导致诊断和治疗各种神经和消化疾病的新工具。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.