Professor Ivan Minev

Bioelectronic implants improve the lives of countless individuals through diagnostic or prosthetic functions. Beyond the success of cardiac pacemakers, cochlear implants or deep brain stimulation, many more therapeutic applications in the nervous and cardiovascular systems remain unexplored. Making the most out of these opportunities will depend on implantable systems that can record and stimulate neural activity and integrate seamlessly with soft tissues in the body.

My group is working on:

• Building sensor-actuator networks to enable listening and speaking to the nervous system in several “languages”. We treat the nervous system not only as an electrical, but also as a chemical, thermal and optical machine.
• Development of 3D printing technologies for the physical realization of implantable bioelectronic devices and soft robots.
• Novel biomaterials (e.g. hydrogels) for engineering the interaction between implant and host tissue.