MEMS Implants for Eye
1-2 p.m., April 23, 2021
Yu-Chong Tai
Anna L. Rosen Prof. of EE and MedE
Andrew and Peggy Cherng Leadership Chair
Chairman of Department of Medical Engineering (MedE)
Division of Engineering and Applied Science
California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
ABSTRACT: Engineered implant technologies to interface intact tissues and/or to replace defective functions have continued to be the main solutions for many diseases such as pacemakers and cochlear implants. Unfortunately, most of the current implant devices are still bulky so they are hard to be used for smaller organs like eye. At the same time, the field of Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) has advanced tremendously for the last 30 years. Most noticeably, however, the field has advanced in microsensors such as pressure sensors, accelerometers, gyros, microphones for cell phones and smart instrumentation. Looking forward though, one promising direction of MEMS/NEMS is for biomedical applications. One specifically interesting prospect is that MEMS can produce miniature implants and eye application is a perfect match. Retinal tissues, especially retinal cells, once damaged, do not repair or regenerate easily and often leave behind permanent debilitating deficits. As our world is facing more severe aging population problems, significant growth in implant applications is foreseeable. The future implants should be smaller, flexible, power efficient and more versatile so that they can be used at places not possible before. This talk will focus on my research of eye implants done at the Caltech. Examples will be given to cover the four major blindness-causing ophthalmic diseases of cataract, glaucoma, age-related macular disease and diabetic retinopathy that make up 80% of world blindness. Specifically, human trials of a bionic implant device for blind retinitis pigmentosa patients will be presented. Note however that these MEMS eye devices may also have other opportunities for other organs in our body too.
BIOGRAPHY: Yu-Chong Tai is the Anna L. Rosen Professor of Electrical Engineering and Medical Engineering at Caltech. His research focuses on advanced biomedical MicroElectroMechanicalSystem (MEMS) devices (mems.caltech.edu). Examples include wireless ECG sensors, lab-on-a-chip diagnostics, retinal prosthetic implants, spinal cord implants, brain implants, micro drug delivery, etc. He has more than 700 articles/patents. He is the recipient of the (Berkeley EECS) Best Thesis Award, Presidential Young Investigator Award, Packard Award, the IEEE Robert Bosch MEMS/NEMS Award, and National Academy Inventor Award. He is an IEEE and AIMBE Fellow. He is also an academician of the Academia Sinica (Taiwan, ROC) and an member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE).