Bioelectronics for drug delivery and biosensing

Siddharth Krishnan

Assistant Professor, Electrical Engineering, Stanford University

Abstract: Recent advances in engineering science have led to new classes of medical devices with emergent mechanical, electrical, and thermal properties that offer new opportunities for interfacing with living tissue. I will discuss conceptual advances in microfabrication, device physics, power transfer and microscale transport phenomena that enable novel biosensors and cell delivery systems, with an emphasis on two recent examples from my work: (i) Soft, skin-interfacing wearable flow sensors for novel neurosurgical diagnostics; (ii) Battery-free bioelectronic systems for “living drug factories” that combine inorganic device elements with living cells for long-term, functional cures for a range of diseases with an emphasis on oxygenation strategies and immune-isolation. I will illustrate the utility of the latter platform with examples of specific cell and disease models. Finally, I will present a vision for how these types of technologies could lead to both fundamental scientific discoveries and next generation bioelectronic cell therapy platforms for the treatment and sensing of chronic disease.

Bio: 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.