Youth Talks 第七十一期（英文）| 柔性生物电子

北京时间9月3日晚八点，iCANX Youth Talks第七十一期将隆重开播！本期，我们邀请到了香港大学张世明，亚洲大学Sungjun Park，哈佛大学刘嘉三位教授主讲，清华大学徐晓敏作为研讨嘉宾，广东以色列理工学院王燕担任主持人，期待你一起加入这场知识盛宴。

Wearable bioelectronic research has reached a new level for their potential to enable real-time body monitoring towards digital health and AI medicine. The emergence of soft bioelectrochemical technologies has further enabled a seamless interface between research tools and biological tissues, allowing for the collection of high-quality and more informative biochemical signals at their origin, even under prolonged use and arbitrary motions. However, the sensitivity of conventional soft bioelectrochemical sensors shows incapability when used in complicated and noisy wearable scenarios. In this talk, I will introduce materials, devices, and manufacturing of an emerging tissue-like microelectronic technology, tissue-like organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) [1-3]. I will discuss how tissue-like OECTs can enrich the toolbox of current bioelectrochemical sensors and electronics to promote translational biomedical innovations, spanning from smart wearables, medical imaging, brain-inspired computing, to human-machine interfacing.

Shiming Zhang is currently an assistant professor at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), leading the Wearable research group. He has a transdisciplinary training record across the fields of microelectronics (Bachelor's), electrochemistry (PhD), and biomedical engineering (Postdoc), making him uniquely qualified for wearable bioelectronic research. He currently holds cross-departmental appointments at HKU Engineering, HKU Medical School, HKU Shenzhen Hospital, and the Terasaki Institute affiliated at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). These resourceful, complementary, and collaborative research environments, with Prof. Zhang as the coordinator, have led to the development of the first wearable biosensing platform at HKU (the PERfECT wearable platform) [4,5].

References:

[1] Zhang Shiming, et al., Nature, 2018

[2] Zhang Shiming*, et al., IEEE Electron Device Letters, 2021

[3] Zhang Shiming et al., Nature Machine Intelligence, 2023

[4] Zhang Shiming*, et al., Science Advances, 2024

[5] Zhang Shiming*, et al., Nature Electronics, 2024    

Ultra-flexible organic optoelectronic devices offer groundbreaking possibilities for next-generation biomedical and wearable technologies, particularly within the Internet of Things framework. The inherent flexibility of organic materials, combined with their cost-effective and efficient processing techniques, has accelerated the development of flexible electronic materials and devices. Enhancing their electronic capabilities and mechanical resilience should be focused on to fully exploit the potential of these human-centric wearables and sensors. In this talk, I will present a detailed overview of the latest milestones and ongoing challenges in the realm of ultra-flexible organic opto-electronics. Our discussion will highlight early results from strategic material choices and structural engineering aimed at creating energy harvesters and sensors compatible with human skin. Ensuring these devices maintain their photonic and electrical integrity under mechanical stress is paramount. By sharing our discoveries, we aim to stimulate further research, enriching the evolution of ultra-flexible electronics across various sectors, including wearables, primary healthcare, medical diagnostics, and AR/VR motion detection. Through persistent innovation, we can seamlessly integrate cutting-edge electronics into everyday experiences, enhancing quality of life and expanding technological horizons.

Prof. Sungjun Park is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Department of Intelligence Semiconductor Engineering at Ajou University, Republic of Korea. He earned his PhD in 2016 from the School of Materials Science and Engineering at the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, Republic of Korea. Before joining Ajou University in 2020, he conducted postdoctoral research at RIKEN in Japan and worked as a Senior Researcher at the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT) in the Republic of Korea. Prof. Park's research focuses on developing novel solution-processed electronic materials and integrating them into flexible and stretchable electronics for wearable sensors and biomedical applications. He has published extensively in top international journals, including Nature, Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Energy, Materials Science and Engineering: R: Reports, Advanced Materials, Advanced Functional Materials, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), ACS Nano and Small. He also serves as the lead guest editor (GE) for the npj Flexible Electronics collection. Beyond his academic achievements, Prof. Park holds 18 U.S. patents and has successfully completed three technology transfers to industry, amounting to approximately $0.3 million USD since 2021. He can be reached via email at sj0223park@ajou.ac.kr.

Biological organisms often possess remarkable multifunctionality through intricate structures, such as the concurrent shape-morphing and stiffness-variation in octopus. Soft robots, which are inspired by natural creatures, usually require the integration of separate modules to achieve these various functions. As a result, the whole structure is cumbersome and the control system is complex, often involving multiple control loops to finish the required task. In this talk, inspired by the biological creatures in nature, I introduce soft robotic structures that can vary stiffness and change shape simultaneously in a highly-integrated compact body. The robotic structure is enabled by the inversely designed programmable unit cells. After fabrication, the robotic structure is inherently soft and flexible. When actuated by confining pneumatic pressure or tendons, it transitions to its designated shape and becomes stiff concurrently. I demonstrate the versatility of our design through practical applications including a soft amphibious robot that can complete a series of tasks including ground crawling, swimming, narrow channel passing, obstacle overcoming, and load bearing, as well as a drone landing system adaptable to varying loads for protection. I further showcase their potentials in assistive wearable devices. With these examples, we aim to create opportunities for future soft robots that are highly-integrated and mimic multifunctional biological organisms.

Professor Liu received his PhD in Chemistry from Harvard University in 2014, after which he completed postdoctoral research at Stanford University from 2015-2018. He joined the faculty at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences as an Assistant Professor in 2019. At Harvard University, Professor Liu’s lab focuses on the development of soft bioelectronics, cyborg engineering, genetic/genomic engineering, and computational tools for addressing questions in brain-machine interfaces, neuroscience, cardiac diseases, and developmental disorders. Professor Liu has pioneered in bioelectronics where he developed new paradigms for soft electronic materials and nanoelectronics architectures for “tissue-like electronics”, as well as their applications for long-term stable brain-machine interface, high-density cardiac mapping, stem cell maturation, and multimodal spatial biology. His work has been recognized as a milestone in bioelectronics by Science in 2013 and 2017, and as Most Notable Chemistry Research and Top 10 World-Changing Ideas in 2015. He has received numerous awards for his independent career, including the 2022 Inventors Under 35 (Global List) by MIT Technology Review, the 2022 Young Investigator Program (YIP) Award from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), the 2021 NIH/NIDDK Catalyst Award from the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award Program, the 2020 William F. Milton Award, and the 2019 Aramont Award for Emerging Science Research Fellowship. He is also the cofounder and scientific advisor of Axoft, Inc., a brain-machine interface company.

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Yan Wang

广东以色列理工学院

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研讨嘉宾

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Xiaomin Xu

清华大学

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