BME Doctoral Defense: Jokubas Ausra

Abstract:
Wireless battery-free implantable stimulation and recording platforms are powerful tools for probing mechanisms of the central and peripheral nervous system and provide opportunities for next-generation diagnostics and therapeutics. The technologies also offer fundamentally new avenues toward chronic studies on small animal model lifetimes with high throughput and multisubject experimental paradigms. However, wireless power harvesting capabilities and multimodal function of current devices are insufficient and systems for large arenas or stimulation of large areas of tissue and organ systems other than the brain are not explored.

To expand the capabilities of this device class we introduce new concepts for digital power management, behavior-guided power transfer system design, and multimodal, intelligent on-device computational capabilities. Specifically, we combine miniaturized capacitive energy storage with digital power management to maximize power delivery to optoelectronic components for transcranial optogenetic stimulation. With the aid of machine learning-based animal tracking, wireless power transfer is engineered to enable optogenetic stimulation and thermography in freely flying animals. Furthermore, laser structured personalized soft thin-film electronics are designed to biomimetically conform to rodent hearts for multimodal assessment and manipulation of cardiac functions such as optical defibrillation.

Combined, the innovations introduced in this talk substantially expand the capabilities of fully implanted bio-integrated electronics for studies in new animal models, significantly reduce the impact on behavior and tissue, enable naturalistic studies over months at a time, and reduce the number of animal models required due to multimodal modulation and recording abilities. The devices also enable computation on the bio interface to result in next-generation closed-loop interventions to organ systems.