Blood‐Glucose‐Powered Metabolic Fuel Cell for Self‐Sufficient Bioelectronics

Abstract

Currently available bioelectronic devices consume too much power to be continuously operated on rechargeable batteries, and are often powered wirelessly, with attendant issues regarding reliability, convenience, and mobility. Thus, the availability of a robust, self‐sufficient, implantable electrical power generator that works under physiological conditions would be transformative for many applications, from driving bioelectronic implants and prostheses to programing cellular behavior and patients’ metabolism. Here, capitalizing on a new copper‐containing, conductively tuned 3D carbon nanotube composite, an implantable blood‐glucose‐powered metabolic fuel cell is designed that continuously monitors blood‐glucose levels, converts excess glucose into electrical power during hyperglycemia, and produces sufficient energy (0.7 mW cm−2, 0.9 V, 50 mm glucose) to drive opto‐ and electro‐genetic regulation of vesicular insulin release from engineered beta cells. It is shown that this integration of blood‐glucose monitoring with elimination of excessive blood glucose by combined electro‐metabolic conversion and insulin‐release‐mediated cellular consumption enables the metabolic fuel cell to restore blood‐glucose homeostasis in an automatic, self‐sufficient, and closed‐loop manner in an experimental model of type‐1 diabetes.

Engineering extracellular electron transfer pathways of electroactive microorganisms by synthetic biology for energy and chemicals production

“…(viii) Developing highly efficient electroactive microbiota by integrating materials/microorganisms hybrids to promote energy capture and conversion. 577 The continued development of these engineering strategies will facilitate widespread applications of EAMs in various bio-electrochemical systems, including e-skin, 578,579 medical diagnostics, 580,581 nanomaterials synthesis, 561 bioelectricitydriven human-computer interaction technologies, MFCs for wastewater treatment and pollutions detection, microfluidic biochips, and electroactive biofilm-based hydrovoltaic technologies. 582…”

Neural repair and regeneration interfaces: a comprehensive review

“…This fuel cell generates power specifically during hyperglycemia, providing sufficient power for optogenetic and bioelectronic implants. By programming these implants to rapidly release insulin from engineered human cells using optogenetic or electrogenetic interfaces, the researchers successfully established a closed-loop metabolic control system capable of restoring glucose homeostasis in type 1 diabetes [159].…”

Coaxial 4D Printing of Vein‐Inspired Thermoresponsive Channel Hydrogel Actuators

“…So far core-sheath structures comprising PNIPAAm and alginate have been reported as highly potent in atmospheric water harvesting, significantly increasing the water capture ratio. [42] However, these constructs were not fabricated in single-step coaxial printing, but in multimodal assembling steps, mainly involving molding. In the strategy proposed by Wang et al, [23] the standard 3D printer nozzle was replaced with custom-made capillary microfluidic chips, rather than a typical coaxial nozzle.…”