Electroceutics: microimplants in place of pharmaceuticals
“Electronic implants can release interrupted or block unwanted signals; they can send signals to other places in the body. Patients who have lost the natural ability to control their bladder function can benefit from a tiny bioelectric implant that monitors their bladder and sends a signal when they need to use the toilet. It could also use high-frequency stimulation of the damaged nerve to prevent the bladder from emptying unintentionally”, explains Vasiliki Giagka, Group Leader at the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration IZM.
Fraunhofer IZM has teamed with the Technical University of Delft to produce miniature, flexible, and durable electronic implants including a dedicated sensor to monitor the patient’s bladder, with the data sent wirelessly to their destination. The implants themselves are recharged wirelessly by ultrasonic waves which stimulates tiny elastic resonators in the implants, energy is then harvested from the mechanical motion into electric power.
the flexible implant stimulate and monitor neural activity
on the brain’s surface. © Fraunhofer IZM | Timothy
Benjamin Hosman.
The microimplants are to be designed to engage directly with nerve cells via electrodes using targeted electric impulses to stimulate certain physiological responses. The flexible electrodes are connected to microchips has thin as 10 micrometres to create new feedback loops between the nerves and the implants and help introduce customized and localized treatments for each patient.
Crafted from biocompatible materials like polymers, precious metals, and silicon, the so-called electroceutics (for pharmaceutical microimplants) could one day replace traditional pharmaceuticals.
New therapeutic pathways could rely on these electroceutics with the potential to minimize the unwanted side-effects caused by traditional drug therapies. The researchers anticipate that other common chronic conditions such as asthma, diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, migraines, rheumatism, high blood pressure and many others could benefit from such treatments as long as the underlying biological mechanisms remain receptive to electrical stimulation.
But reliability and operational life are key to make this happen and even before any clinical trials.
“We are currently developing new test concepts to check the reliability of the implants for the entire process, and we are still working to miniaturize and optimize the stimulators”, Giagka explains.
The durability of the microstimulators remains a particular challenge, as the implants need to function reliably over decades in the human body. At the same time, the team is trying to reduce the size of the overall system to less than a cubic centimetre.
Vasiliki Giagka, who has established a dedicated working group on bioelectronics technologies at Fraunhofer IZM as part of the “Fraunhofer Attract” program alongside her work as an assistant professor at the TU Delft, has reached out to partners across Europe, the United States, and Asia to promote the prospects of electrostimulation therapy via microimplants. The microimplants’ data must also be very secure, something under investigation in cooperation with the Fraunhofer’s Berlin Center for Digital Transformation.
Fraunhofer IZM – www.izm.fraunhofer.de/en
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