Yong Lin Kong¹; ¹University of Utah

A seamless integration of biomedical devices with a human body could enable a myriad of exciting applications in the field of diagnostic, drug-delivery and smart prosthetics. Indeed, the ability to impart active functionalities such as advanced sensing, computation and drug delivery through biomedical devices could restore or even augment the complex functionalities of a naturally evolved biological system. Yet, such integration is inherently challenging due to the geometrical, mechanical and material dichotomies between conventional biomedical devices and the human body. My research group focuses on the development of additive manufacturing technologies to create multifunctional structures and electronics devices. As an example, here we demonstrate an approach to prolong the gastric residence of wireless electronics to weeks via multimaterial three-dimensional design and fabrication. Ultimately, the ability to create a multi-functional ingestible gastric resident electronics could enable a surgical-free integration of wireless medical devices with the human body.