Chemical Society Seminar: Zhenan Bao- Skin-Inspired Organic Electronics
Abstract:
Skin is the body’s largest organ. It is responsible for the transduction of a vast amount of information. This conformable, stretchable, self-healable and biodegradable material simultaneously collects signals from external stimuli that translate into information such as pressure, pain, and temperature. The development of electronic materials, inspired by the complexity of this organ is a tremendous, unrealized materials challenge. However, the advent of organic-based electronic materials may offer a potential solution to this longstanding problem. Over the past decade, we have developed materials design concepts to add skin-like functions to organic electronic materials without compromising their electronic properties. We developed various soft sensors for continuous measurements, including pressure, strain, shear, temperature, electrophysiological and neurotransmitter sensors. The above sensors and integrated circuits are the foundations for soft bioelectronics and are enabling a broad range of new tools for medical devices, robotics and wearable electronics.
Bio:
Bao is K.K. Lee Professor of Chemical Engineering, and by courtesy, a Professor of Chemistry and a Professor of Material Science and Engineering at Stanford University. Bao directs the Stanford Wearable Electronics Initiate (eWEAR) and the Taiwan Science and Technology Hub @ Stanford. She is a CZ Biohub investigator since 2022 and an Arc Institute Innovation Investigator since 2023.
Prior to joining Stanford in 2004, she was a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff in Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies from 1995-2004. She received her Ph.D in Chemistry from the University of Chicago in 1995. She has more than 700 refereed publications and over 80 US patents with a Google Scholar H-Index 211 and is one of the world’s most highly cited scholars in the fields of chemistry and material science. She is one of the Clarivate Citation Laureates in Chemistry for her pioneering work on skin-inspired electronics.
Bao is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Inventors. She a foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Science. She has been serving on the Board of Directors of the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation and scientific affair committee from 2022.
Bao is a recipient of the VinFuture Prize Female Innovator 2022, the ACS Chemistry of Materials Award 2022, MRS Mid-Career Award in 2021, AICHE Alpha Chi Sigma Award 2021, ACS Central Science Disruptor and Innovator Prize in 2020, Gibbs Medal 2020, Wilhelm Exner Medal 2018, ACS Award on Applied Polymer Science 2017, L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award 2017.
Bao is a co-founder and on the Board of Directors for C3 Nano and PyrAmes, both are silicon-valley venture funded start-ups. Research inventions from her group have been licensed and are foundational technologies of multiple start-ups founded by her students. Bao serves as an advisor for Fusion Venture and Boutique Venture.
Bao has developed new molecular design concepts and fabrication processes to advance the scope and applications of soft electronics. Her work has resulted in new opportunities for soft robotics, wearable and implantable electronics for precision health, precision mental health and advanced tools for understanding neuroscience and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. Her group has developed foundational materials and devices that enabled a new generation of skin-inspired soft electronics. They provide unprecedented opportunities for understanding human health and developing monitoring, diagnosis and treatment tools. A few recent examples include: an e-skin that can sense force and temperature and directly communicate with brain, a wireless wound healing patch, a soft NeuroString for simultaneous neurochemical monitoring in the brain and gut, soft high-density electrophysiological recording array, a meta-learned skin sensor for detailed body movements, a reconfigurable self-healing electronic skin.