seminar_Stanford_Siddharth Krishnan

Bioelectronics for closed-loop disease management

Presenter: Prof. Siddharth Krishnan
Assistant Professor, Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford University

Introduction of the speaker: Siddharth Krishnan is an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. Previously, he was a K99/R00 Research Scientist in the groups of Prof. Daniel Anderson and Prof. Robert Langer at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT. He received BS and MS degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis, and his PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from Prof. John Roger’s group. His work has focused on the development of bioelectronic devices for sensing and therapeutics. He has published over 20 scientific papers, is an inventor several granted and pending patents and co-founded a company, Rhaeos Inc., focused on translating his graduate work on wireless wearable diagnostic tools for neurological surgery. His work has been recognized through several awards, including a postdoctoral fellowship from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the 2019 Illinois Innovation Prize, a graduate student medal from the Materials Research Society and being named on MIT Technology Review’s Global Innovators Under 35 list and on Forbes 30 under 30 list in science.

Question: can we combine electronics and biology in a meaningful way?

This central question guided Prof. Krishnan’s talk. His work explores how core engineering sciences—including semiconductor physics, materials design, mechanics, and wireless systems—can be meaningfully integrated with living tissues to enable new forms of diagnostics and therapies.

Key building blocks include:

• Semiconductor devices, physics, materials, and processing

• Flexible, stretchable, 3D mechanics

• Wireless power and data transfer (near-field and far-field)

• Tissue integration for long-term biocompatibility

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The body as a thermal system

before/after cycling
before/after sauna

precision, response time

==> tissue-conformal electronics -> soft, flexible, and stretchable electronics that conform to the body’s surface and can monitor and respond to physiological signals in real-time.

power and data transfer based on near-field communication at 13.56 MHz

thermal anisotropy -> the property of a material to conduct heat differently in different directions, which is crucial for the design of effective thermal management systems in wearable devices.

Hydrocephalus and shunt monitoring

novel insights into CSF hydrodynamics through shunts to reduce uncertainty

Delivering novel classes of drugs:

• small molecules
• proteins and peptides
• antibodies
• nucleic acids
• live cells

the goal: active, triggerable delivery of dry powder drugs

triggering mechanism -> implanted drug delivery system -> drug release

==> flexible heater + nitinol shape memory alloy

diffusion and bioavailability in vivo

Cell therapies - what if your body could make its own medicine?

Islet transplantation

hypoxia in cellular transplants remains a major challenge

borrowing from the fuel cell industry: proton exchange membrane electrolysis for oxygenation of implants

1-month survival and insulin production following nonhuman test