J如何.-C. 焦立中 and a Team of 研究生 研究 Students are Pioneering Physiotronics to Treat Pain, 胃轻瘫
Dr. J.-C. 焦立中和他在新加坡管理大学莱尔工程学院的研究生研究团队正在开拓医疗植入物的创造，这将为慢性病患者提供一种恢复正常生活的新选择.
研究ers at SMU 莱尔 are on the brink of electronically hacking the brain and changing medicine forever.
Making rapid advances in the field of physiotronics, through which electronics are interfaced with human anatomy, Dr. J.-C. 焦立中 和他在新加坡管理大学莱尔工程学院的研究生研究团队正在开拓医疗植入物和可穿戴设备的创造，这将为慢性病患者提供一种恢复正常生活的新选择.
From dialing back debilitating pain on a smartphone screen to automatically regulating 胃 motility, 低成本, 焦立中的团队正在设计的无线和无电池设备可以干预人体器官到大脑的反馈回路，并恢复患有各种慢性疾病的患者的健康器官功能，这些疾病目前很困难, 难以管理的昂贵的或无法管理的.
“We’ve built implants on flexible substrates that can go into the brain, 脊柱, 胃, bladder – all these places where electronics interface with soft tissues,焦立中说。.
他解释说，一旦到位, 体电传感器和植入物可以通过更准确地量化医疗状况的严重程度来执行各种医疗评估和治疗, 比如神经活动引起的疼痛, and treating the conditions by triggering various organ responses in the body.
“How do you characterize or document somebody’s pain? 这是一种主观的感觉. 这个人告诉你他或她的感受, but even the person cannot one hundred percent understand or describe the pain, not to mention that the doctor relies on this number, 从一到十的等级. 这是不精确的，”焦立中说. “So that’s the number one issue: how do you sense one’s pain? 和 then once you know that somebody has pain, how do you safely inhibit the pain signals?”
焦立中说，他和他的合作者正在研究的大脑和脊柱植入物可以区分必要的疼痛, the pain that we all need to protect ourselves like retracting our hand from scalding water, and the debilitating pain that needs to be inhibited so that a person can return to a normal routine.
Collaborating with neuroscientists and anesthetists, 该研究小组已经制造了可以检测和分析大脑和脊柱中被感知为疼痛的神经元伤害感受器信号的植入物. 一旦信号被检测和量化, 然后，植入物可以释放出小电压，干扰神经通路中信号的传播，从而抑制大脑对疼痛的感知.
“The pain signal needs to go from the pain source to the brain, and only your brain can recognize that that’s a pain signal,他说. “So, 这个想法是，我们发送一个电信号来阻止神经元同步传播疼痛信号, 所以疼痛信号永远不会到达大脑. 因此你感觉不到疼痛.”
The device simply mimics the natural organ-to-brain feedback mechanisms that we already have. When people feel wrist pain and then rub their wrists, 他们通过摩擦或挤压手腕的动作产生不同的信号，从而干扰了发送到大脑的疼痛信号.
“What we are doing is using an electronic device to provide that feedback,焦立中说。. “So, 一旦体内的设备检测到疼痛, 它会向外界发送信号, 说, 可穿戴设备或智能手机. 然后智能手机识别, 是的, 这是一个疼痛信号，然后问那个人, 我察觉到疼痛信号. 你想做什么? So, you can send an electrical signal back to the neurons to stop that pain signal. Now you have an electronic feedback loop to manage your pain feeling.”
人工智能算法可以了解患者对不同程度疼痛的反应，并随着时间的推移快速自动地做出反应.
“一旦你感觉最好, 系统现在知道最佳参数集，并将在后台自动管理您的舒适度,他说.
In researching how to manage chronic pain with implants, 研究小组发现，他们正在开发的设备可以帮助治疗多种其他医疗疾病，这些疾病也可以与大脑到器官的反馈机制一起工作. 这一发现给患有胃肠道或膀胱瘫痪的患者带来了希望，他们有一天可以安装可穿戴或智能手机植入物，使他们恢复受损解剖结构的正常功能.
“We are working on the 胃 motility issue,他说 about gastroparesis. “The Vagus nerve in patients with gastroparesis may be damaged due to diabetes or chemotherapy. The 胃 does not move properly to digest food. With a small implant by an endoscope through mouth and esophagus onto the 胃 wall, the electrical current from the implant can trigger the 胃 to move properly again. Currently, there is no medication to treat such a condition.”
因为植入需要手术, 该团队专注于设备小型化, 无线信号转导和无电池无线供电，因此它们可以通过内窥镜或微创手术实现. Smaller implants will reduce the scale and complexity of surgery. The wireless communication between the implant and smartphone empowers patient’s personalized management.
用于胃肠道设备, 焦立中认为整个植入过程大约需要20分钟，患者可以在手术当天回家. 如果以后需要改变植入位置，植入过程也可以更容易地重复.
“我们专注于无电池植入，”焦立中说. “For two reasons: it’s much safer without additional chemicals in the implants; and the implant will be much smaller as the long-term battery capacity can take up a significant volume. Electronic chip size can be in a millimeter scale these days. Removing the battery can make the implant much smaller to fit it through an endoscope.”
前国防和电信研究员, 在过去的15年里，焦立中一直致力于将其电气工程专业知识应用于生物医学领域, racking up several patents to his name in the process. 他自己就是工程师的儿子, 焦立中 had a proclivity for electronics growing up, and once he eventually enrolled as a student in Taiwan University, 他被他在电气工程系可以追求的无限可能性迷住了.
“当我上大学的时候, I found that everything I thought about electrical engineering was wrong,他说. “Electrical engineering is so broad: they’re working on chemistry, 物理, 电脑, 机器人, 飞机飞行控制, 半导体, 光子学, 电网, 他们正在研究生物和医学! So-called electrical engineering doesn’t really exist. 它实际上意味着一切.”
作为一名学生, 焦立中 volunteered to assist a professor in his work on fiber optics, 然后在军队里, 他研究雷达系统. His experience then paved the way for his graduate work in microwave, 毫米波和微机电系统(MEMS)的研究.
现在是SMU电气和计算机工程系的玛丽和理查德邓普顿百年纪念主席, 焦立中领导着一个研究团队，他说这个团队汇集了来自世界各地的各种各样的聪明才智, most of whom have no previous research experience in medical devices.
“我的团队就像联合国. I have students from all over the world,他说. “My goal is to give creative freedom to students so I can see their growth. Sometimes when a student applies to our school for a Ph.D., and even if the academic background does not fit, if this person has potential and self-motivation, I believe she or he can learn quickly and contribute innovation to our works by thinking outside the box.”
Because of fresh perspectives and diverse backgrounds, 焦立中 says his research team brings novelty into an already innovative field of study, 比如，博士生kengdaliu chaawang对非侵入式微传感器技术进行了改造，使其能够被整合到食品包装中，以检测食品变质, potentially mitigating enormous and costly waste in the food industry worldwide. Chawang grew up in the Indian region of Nagaland where many suffer from malnourishment due to food scarcity. 因为她的发明, 在2022年IEEE传感器会议上，她在电气和电子工程师协会的大创意竞赛中获得了最佳女性创业奖.
Venturing into the various medical applications of his research, 焦立中, 他认为这些技术是解决慢性疾病全球挑战的潜在解决方案，他将慢性疾病描述为医疗保健系统即将到来的大流行. 和, inasmuch as mental health issues all involve the brain, 他说，通过检测大脑反馈回路中的可测量信号，这些新兴技术有朝一日可能被用于治疗抑郁症和焦虑症. 特别是, his group now is working on noninvasive methods to detect body chemistry toward this challenge.
“痛苦到底是什么??乔问道。. “Some people say, it’s so painful for me to have a break-up. If you ask them which part of your body is experiencing pain, they say it’s their heart. 但这是不可能的. 它应该在他们的大脑里. 然而, 这种很主观的感觉, 比如压力和焦虑, 会影响我们的整个身体吗. 我们能否使用无创可穿戴设备来感知我们身体周围可量化的生理和生化信号来检测那种感觉? Maybe by understanding better about how our body react to anxiety, 压力甚至愤怒, 我们可以改善我们的心理健康和, 当然, 整体身体健康.”
关于Bobby B. 莱尔工程学院
新加坡管理大学莱尔工程学院, 成立于1925年, is one of the oldest engineering schools in the Southwest. The school offers twelve undergraduate and 29 graduate programs, 包括硕士和博士学位, in the departments of 土木与环境工程; 计算机科学; 电气与计算机工程; 机械工程 and 运筹学与工程管理.
关于SMU
SMU is the nationally ranked global research university in the dynamic city of Dallas. SMU的校友, 教职员工近12人,在8所授予学位的学校中，000名学生在引领行业变革的过程中展现了企业家精神, 社区与世界.
Making rapid advances in the field of physiotronics, through which electronics are interfaced with human anatomy, Dr. J.-C. 焦立中 和他在新加坡管理大学莱尔工程学院的研究生研究团队正在开拓医疗植入物和可穿戴设备的创造，这将为慢性病患者提供一种恢复正常生活的新选择.
From dialing back debilitating pain on a smartphone screen to automatically regulating 胃 motility, 低成本, 焦立中的团队正在设计的无线和无电池设备可以干预人体器官到大脑的反馈回路，并恢复患有各种慢性疾病的患者的健康器官功能，这些疾病目前很困难, 难以管理的昂贵的或无法管理的.
“We’ve built implants on flexible substrates that can go into the brain, 脊柱, 胃, bladder – all these places where electronics interface with soft tissues,焦立中说。.
他解释说，一旦到位, 体电传感器和植入物可以通过更准确地量化医疗状况的严重程度来执行各种医疗评估和治疗, 比如神经活动引起的疼痛, and treating the conditions by triggering various organ responses in the body.
“How do you characterize or document somebody’s pain? 这是一种主观的感觉. 这个人告诉你他或她的感受, but even the person cannot one hundred percent understand or describe the pain, not to mention that the doctor relies on this number, 从一到十的等级. 这是不精确的，”焦立中说. “So that’s the number one issue: how do you sense one’s pain? 和 then once you know that somebody has pain, how do you safely inhibit the pain signals?”
焦立中说，他和他的合作者正在研究的大脑和脊柱植入物可以区分必要的疼痛, the pain that we all need to protect ourselves like retracting our hand from scalding water, and the debilitating pain that needs to be inhibited so that a person can return to a normal routine.
Collaborating with neuroscientists and anesthetists, 该研究小组已经制造了可以检测和分析大脑和脊柱中被感知为疼痛的神经元伤害感受器信号的植入物. 一旦信号被检测和量化, 然后，植入物可以释放出小电压，干扰神经通路中信号的传播，从而抑制大脑对疼痛的感知.
-了解更多关于SMU莱尔的信息 研究生学位课程. —
“The pain signal needs to go from the pain source to the brain, and only your brain can recognize that that’s a pain signal,他说. “So, 这个想法是，我们发送一个电信号来阻止神经元同步传播疼痛信号, 所以疼痛信号永远不会到达大脑. 因此你感觉不到疼痛.”
The device simply mimics the natural organ-to-brain feedback mechanisms that we already have. When people feel wrist pain and then rub their wrists, 他们通过摩擦或挤压手腕的动作产生不同的信号，从而干扰了发送到大脑的疼痛信号.
“What we are doing is using an electronic device to provide that feedback,焦立中说。. “So, 一旦体内的设备检测到疼痛, 它会向外界发送信号, 说, 可穿戴设备或智能手机. 然后智能手机识别, 是的, 这是一个疼痛信号，然后问那个人, 我察觉到疼痛信号. 你想做什么? So, you can send an electrical signal back to the neurons to stop that pain signal. Now you have an electronic feedback loop to manage your pain feeling.”
人工智能算法可以了解患者对不同程度疼痛的反应，并随着时间的推移快速自动地做出反应.
“一旦你感觉最好, 系统现在知道最佳参数集，并将在后台自动管理您的舒适度,他说.
In researching how to manage chronic pain with implants, 研究小组发现，他们正在开发的设备可以帮助治疗多种其他医疗疾病，这些疾病也可以与大脑到器官的反馈机制一起工作. 这一发现给患有胃肠道或膀胱瘫痪的患者带来了希望，他们有一天可以安装可穿戴或智能手机植入物，使他们恢复受损解剖结构的正常功能.
“We are working on the 胃 motility issue,他说 about gastroparesis. “The Vagus nerve in patients with gastroparesis may be damaged due to diabetes or chemotherapy. The 胃 does not move properly to digest food. With a small implant by an endoscope through mouth and esophagus onto the 胃 wall, the electrical current from the implant can trigger the 胃 to move properly again. Currently, there is no medication to treat such a condition.”
因为植入需要手术, 该团队专注于设备小型化, 无线信号转导和无电池无线供电，因此它们可以通过内窥镜或微创手术实现. Smaller implants will reduce the scale and complexity of surgery. The wireless communication between the implant and smartphone empowers patient’s personalized management.
用于胃肠道设备, 焦立中认为整个植入过程大约需要20分钟，患者可以在手术当天回家. 如果以后需要改变植入位置，植入过程也可以更容易地重复.
“我们专注于无电池植入，”焦立中说. “For two reasons: it’s much safer without additional chemicals in the implants; and the implant will be much smaller as the long-term battery capacity can take up a significant volume. Electronic chip size can be in a millimeter scale these days. Removing the battery can make the implant much smaller to fit it through an endoscope.”
前国防和电信研究员, 在过去的15年里，焦立中一直致力于将其电气工程专业知识应用于生物医学领域, racking up several patents to his name in the process. 他自己就是工程师的儿子, 焦立中 had a proclivity for electronics growing up, and once he eventually enrolled as a student in Taiwan University, 他被他在电气工程系可以追求的无限可能性迷住了.
“当我上大学的时候, I found that everything I thought about electrical engineering was wrong,他说. “Electrical engineering is so broad: they’re working on chemistry, 物理, 电脑, 机器人, 飞机飞行控制, 半导体, 光子学, 电网, 他们正在研究生物和医学! So-called electrical engineering doesn’t really exist. 它实际上意味着一切.”
作为一名学生, 焦立中 volunteered to assist a professor in his work on fiber optics, 然后在军队里, 他研究雷达系统. His experience then paved the way for his graduate work in microwave, 毫米波和微机电系统(MEMS)的研究.
现在是SMU电气和计算机工程系的玛丽和理查德邓普顿百年纪念主席, 焦立中领导着一个研究团队，他说这个团队汇集了来自世界各地的各种各样的聪明才智, most of whom have no previous research experience in medical devices.
“我的团队就像联合国. I have students from all over the world,他说. “My goal is to give creative freedom to students so I can see their growth. Sometimes when a student applies to our school for a Ph.D., and even if the academic background does not fit, if this person has potential and self-motivation, I believe she or he can learn quickly and contribute innovation to our works by thinking outside the box.”
Because of fresh perspectives and diverse backgrounds, 焦立中 says his research team brings novelty into an already innovative field of study, 比如，博士生kengdaliu chaawang对非侵入式微传感器技术进行了改造，使其能够被整合到食品包装中，以检测食品变质, potentially mitigating enormous and costly waste in the food industry worldwide. Chawang grew up in the Indian region of Nagaland where many suffer from malnourishment due to food scarcity. 因为她的发明, 在2022年IEEE传感器会议上，她在电气和电子工程师协会的大创意竞赛中获得了最佳女性创业奖.
Venturing into the various medical applications of his research, 焦立中, 他认为这些技术是解决慢性疾病全球挑战的潜在解决方案，他将慢性疾病描述为医疗保健系统即将到来的大流行. 和, inasmuch as mental health issues all involve the brain, 他说，通过检测大脑反馈回路中的可测量信号，这些新兴技术有朝一日可能被用于治疗抑郁症和焦虑症. 特别是, his group now is working on noninvasive methods to detect body chemistry toward this challenge.
“痛苦到底是什么??乔问道。. “Some people say, it’s so painful for me to have a break-up. If you ask them which part of your body is experiencing pain, they say it’s their heart. 但这是不可能的. 它应该在他们的大脑里. 然而, 这种很主观的感觉, 比如压力和焦虑, 会影响我们的整个身体吗. 我们能否使用无创可穿戴设备来感知我们身体周围可量化的生理和生化信号来检测那种感觉? Maybe by understanding better about how our body react to anxiety, 压力甚至愤怒, 我们可以改善我们的心理健康和, 当然, 整体身体健康.”
关于Bobby B. 莱尔工程学院
新加坡管理大学莱尔工程学院, 成立于1925年, is one of the oldest engineering schools in the Southwest. The school offers twelve undergraduate and 29 graduate programs, 包括硕士和博士学位, in the departments of 土木与环境工程; 计算机科学; 电气与计算机工程; 机械工程 and 运筹学与工程管理.
关于SMU
SMU is the nationally ranked global research university in the dynamic city of Dallas. SMU的校友, 教职员工近12人,在8所授予学位的学校中，000名学生在引领行业变革的过程中展现了企业家精神, 社区与世界.