Researchers develop game-changing neural device powered by the body

The National Institutes of Health awarded $1.8 million to a University of Florida engineering team developing a wireless, battery-less, injectable and minimally invasive neural stimulator powered by the patient’s body. 

About the size of a grain of rice and as thick as a piece of paper, the device is designed to treat painful and debilitating nerve disorders more efficiently and effectively than existing, bulky neural stimulators with external power sources. Patients will go home faster after the procedure, meaning lower medical bills. 

“Our body is conductive, and we can send signals through the body, be it wireless data signals or signals to power certain devices,” said Baibhab Chatterjee, Ph.D., the Nelms Rising Star Endowed Professor in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, or ECE, and the project’s principal investigator. “I have been looking into implantables for the last four years, exploring how we can utilize this technology.” 

The body is a conductor, specifically at lower frequencies, and the team is using these conductive properties to produce signals for power. 

Presented in September, the prestigious NIH R01 grant will help the researchers’ quest to dramatically improve treatment outcomes, reduce health care costs and enhance the quality of life for patients suffering from nerve damage.  

The research evolved after the National Institutes of Health, known as NIH, awarded ECE Assistant Professor Adam Khalifa, Ph.D., a $1.5 million grant in 2024 to develop minimally invasive implants.  

“The ultimate goal is to develop devices that are battery-free, injectable microchips that can be deployed anywhere in the body,” said Khalifa, also ECE’s Dean Wayne Chen Faculty Fellow. 

The new NIH grant is an important step toward that vision and allows the team to expand the research into peripheral nerves, which connect the brain and spinal cord to the rest of the body, including skin, muscles and internal organs. 

“Peripheral nerve damage, or peripheral neuropathy, happens when the nerves outside your brain and spinal cord are injured or diseased, disrupting communication between your central nervous system and the rest of your body,” Chatterjee said. “Peripheral nerve injury significantly impacts movement, sensation and organ function, leading to a reduction in quality of life and substantial socioeconomic costs.”  

Existing treatments using electrical peripheral nerve stimulation also are limited because they are bulky and invasive, requiring large incisions.  

“Our platform,” Chatterjee said, “will be capable of precise nerve targeting and stimulation without major surgery, enabling the treatment of conditions such as chronic pain, paralysis and autonomic dysfunction. Through preclinical studies in rodent models and subsequent translational efforts, this research will pave the way for a new generation of neural implants, offering effective and less invasive solutions for nerve repair and functional restoration.” 

The team also includes Shriya Srinivasan, Ph.D., director of the BIONICs Lab at Harvard University.  

In her lab at Harvard, Srinivasan and her team are developing treatments through a single needle point a few millimeters in size. The smaller the better, as implementation is scar-free and can be performed by a procedural specialist, not a neurosurgeon. 

“The long-term vision,” Khalifa said, “is to make electrical stimulation therapies smaller, less invasive and easier to deploy throughout the body, potentially opening new approaches for conditions such as chronic pain, nerve injuries and other neurological disorders.”