Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, causing one death every thirty-three seconds. According to the Centers for Disease Control, heart disease cost about $252.2 billion in healthcare services, medicines, and lost productivity from 2019 to 2020. Medical professionals have been constrained in their fight against heart disease by a lack of technology to monitor cardiac activity for a living heart in a body, also known as in vivo monitoring.
Professor Luyao Lu of the Biomedical Engineering (BME) Department and his Advanced Bio-integrated Electronics Lab students have developed groundbreaking new heart-mapping technology for multiparametric, in vivo heart monitoring. This technology represents a major leap forward in understanding heart diseases and testing treatments.
Previously, heart activity was primarily mapped ex vivo in cardiac research, meaning it occurred while the heart was outside the body. This has dramatically limited heart monitoring capabilities and medical professionals' ability to observe and measure the real-time interactions between the heart and other bodily organs and functions.
“It’s very difficult to perform in vivo multiparametric cardiac mapping studies from the blood-perfused beating hearts. With this kind of technology available, it can allow you to better understand what’s going on with the heart – for example, identifying the roles of different cardiac parameters in arrhythmias in vivo. The results will help develop treatments for different kinds of heart disease. If there is a treatment ready, this device can also help us evaluate the cardiac effects or cardiotoxicity of the treatment,” Lu explained.
The one-of-a-kind device is soft, fits snugly on the heart’s surface, and operates wirelessly. The multimodal design combines optical and electronic tools to measure metrics like electrogram signals and calcium levels precisely.
As experts in materials, device design, and system-level integration, Lu and his lab members develop the technology in their lab space and the Nanofabrication & Imaging Center on the GW campus. When it’s time to test the technology’s heart-mapping capabilities, the lab members travel to Chicago to the lab of their collaborator Prof. Igor Efimov, at Northwestern University, where Northwestern researchers conduct ex vivo and in vivo experiments with the device.
Professor Lu’s lab is unique because it includes students at all levels, including doctoral, Master's, and undergraduate researchers.
Nathaniel Quirion has been involved with the Advanced Bio-integrated Electronics Lab for three years. As a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, he’s grateful for the unparalleled opportunities he’s had in the lab and for the experience of supporting the development of this innovative, paradigm-shifting technology.
“These innovations represent the future of commercial biomedical devices, and being at the forefront of their rapid evolution is an exciting experience,” Quirion said. “It’s incredibly rewarding to contribute to groundbreaking technology that pushes the boundaries of biointegration and microelectronics,” he concluded.