IEM Seminar Series in Microfluidics and biology on chip: Interfacing Living Matter with Iontronic Synthetic Tissues for Biomedical Applications
Abstract
Bio-integrated devices need power sources to operate. Despite widely used technologies that can provide power to large-scale targets, such as wired energy supplies from batteries or wireless energy transduction, a need to efficiently modulate cells and tissues on the microscale is still pressing. The ideal miniaturized power source should be biocompatible, mechanically flexible, and able to generate an ionic current for biological modulation—iontronic devices, instead of using electron flow as in conventional electronic devices. In this seminar, the presenter will discuss his research on miniature soft batteries based on the lipid-supported assembly of hydrogel droplet networks. By exploiting biocompatible polymers and protein modifications, the droplet batteries feature triggerable activation, high energy density, and multifunctionality. Applications include the modulation of 3D neural microtissues and the defibrillation of ex vivo mouse hearts. Moving a step forward, the hydrogel droplets can also incorporate other synthetic and biological parts and could integrate functions of the embedded materials, such as logic control and therapeutics delivery, etc. Ultimately, by 3D printing synthetic tissues composed of various modules together, the droplet networks become iontronic systems that can express collaborative properties and enable interactive communication with biology. The droplet-based system will provide an alternative strategy, in parallel to bioelectronic medicine, to be used as bioiontronic medicine for human-machine interfaces and medical treatments.
Short Bio
Dr Yujia Zhang is a postdoctoral research associate in the Bayley group at the University of Oxford. He graduated in 2016 with a BSc in Electronics and Information Science and Technology from the University of Science and Technology of China. Later, he completed a DPhil in biomedical engineering and MEMS/NEMS technology at the Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology (Chinese Academy of Sciences), followed by one year of being a visiting scholar at Stony Brook University (The State University of New York). In 2021, Yujia started his postdoctoral research at the Bayley group with a focus on the development of multifunctional iontronic synthetic tissues for biotic interfaces and soft implants. He received the Chinese Academy of Sciences Presidential Scholarship (Special Prize) in 2020 and was selected by the UK Parliamentary & Scientific Committee as a representative early-career scientist in 2023.
Bio-integrated devices need power sources to operate. Despite widely used technologies that can provide power to large-scale targets, such as wired energy supplies from batteries or wireless energy transduction, a need to efficiently modulate cells and tissues on the microscale is still pressing. The ideal miniaturized power source should be biocompatible, mechanically flexible, and able to generate an ionic current for biological modulation—iontronic devices, instead of using electron flow as in conventional electronic devices. In this seminar, the presenter will discuss his research on miniature soft batteries based on the lipid-supported assembly of hydrogel droplet networks. By exploiting biocompatible polymers and protein modifications, the droplet batteries feature triggerable activation, high energy density, and multifunctionality. Applications include the modulation of 3D neural microtissues and the defibrillation of ex vivo mouse hearts. Moving a step forward, the hydrogel droplets can also incorporate other synthetic and biological parts and could integrate functions of the embedded materials, such as logic control and therapeutics delivery, etc. Ultimately, by 3D printing synthetic tissues composed of various modules together, the droplet networks become iontronic systems that can express collaborative properties and enable interactive communication with biology. The droplet-based system will provide an alternative strategy, in parallel to bioelectronic medicine, to be used as bioiontronic medicine for human-machine interfaces and medical treatments.
Short Bio
Dr Yujia Zhang is a postdoctoral research associate in the Bayley group at the University of Oxford. He graduated in 2016 with a BSc in Electronics and Information Science and Technology from the University of Science and Technology of China. Later, he completed a DPhil in biomedical engineering and MEMS/NEMS technology at the Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology (Chinese Academy of Sciences), followed by one year of being a visiting scholar at Stony Brook University (The State University of New York). In 2021, Yujia started his postdoctoral research at the Bayley group with a focus on the development of multifunctional iontronic synthetic tissues for biotic interfaces and soft implants. He received the Chinese Academy of Sciences Presidential Scholarship (Special Prize) in 2020 and was selected by the UK Parliamentary & Scientific Committee as a representative early-career scientist in 2023.
Practical information
- General public
- Free