Soft Implantable Bioelectronics for Heart Disease

Recent advances in soft electronics have attracted great attention due in large to its potential applications in personalized bio-integrated healthcare devices. The mechanical mismatch between conventional electronic devices and soft human tissues/organs oftentimes causes various challenges, such as the low signal-to-noise ratio of the biosensors, inflammations and/or excessive immune responses near the implanted devices, and unsatisfactory electrical/chemical stimulations in feedback therapies. Therefore, the ultra-flexible, stretchable, and bioresorbable electronic devices have been developed and applied, since their mechanical and material properties are compatible with the in-vivo environment and thus they have a high potential to solve the aforementioned issues. To develop such bioelectronic devices, nanomaterials, their composites, and biodegradable materials have been researched. In this talk, the unconventional electronic material and device strategies and their applications to the treatment of heart diseases are presented. The integration of wireless technologies with the unconventional bioelectronics could provide additional opportunities, and the related results of the wireless bioelectronics are also briefly introduced. These efforts in the development of various unconventional materials and bioelectronic devices are expected to contribute to addressing many unsolved issues in clinical medicine.