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Engineering Professor Wins Federal Grant to Develop Wireless Implantable System
October 8, 2015
NYIT Assistant Professor Aydin Farajidavar, Ph.D., will use a $457,000 National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant to develop an implantable wireless system to study the body’s gastric system.
Farajidavar’s research aims to create a safe method to monitor the electrical impulses that produce rhythmic movements and contractions in the stomach central to gastric health and good digestion. Problems with gastric movements, called dysrhythmias, lead to disorders that prevent the stomach from digesting food normally, causing other problems with blood sugar levels, nutrition absorption, and painful cramps.
“Right now, we have no adequate way to record the gastric signals that allow us to understand what may be happening in a patient’s stomach,” says Farajidavar. “External devices placed on the surface of the belly don’t always pick up the stomach’s signals or the signal recording is disrupted if a patient moves a certain way.”
Farajidavar’s tiny device will first be tested in animals. It is designed to be implanted in a patient during an endoscopy, a procedure in which doctors use a flexible tube to examine the digestive tract. Surgeons would insert the device by opening a small flap inside the stomach. Once implanted, the chip would transmit data on the stomach’s so-called “slow waves” to a small patch worn on the skin. The patch, in turn, would transfer the data to a unit used by doctors to map and monitor the stomach’s electrical activity. The system is known as WINGS (Wireless Implantable NeuroGastroenterology System). The implant wirelessly recharges through the patch, potentially allowing it to stay in the body for a month or more.
“Once we know more about these gastric waves and signals, scientists can develop special therapies, similar to heart pacemakers, for patients suffering from gastric disorders,” says Farajidavar. “In the field of cardiology, these technologies have helped revolutionize diagnosis and treatment of heart issues. The same thing is possible for the stomach conditions but only if we have ways to monitor gastric signals in long-term studies.”
Farajidavar is developing the device in the Entrepreneurship and Technology Innovation Center of NYIT School of Engineering and Computing Sciences.
“Federal research funding helps our doctors, scientists, and engineers by giving them the critical resources they need to improve the quality of life for patients around the world,” says Rep. Steve Israel. “I am thrilled that Assistant Professor Farajidavar and NYIT are continuing the vital work that has positioned Long Island as a national hub for medical research.”
Farajidavar’s research team includes scientists from Auckland Bioengineering Institute (New Zealand), Pennsylvania State University, and North-Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System.
His grant is part of an NIH initiative dedicated to investigating the workings of peripheral nerves, the nerves outside of the brain and spinal cord. Known as the SPARC (Stimulating Peripheral Activity to Relieve Conditions) program, the initiative seeks to fund projects that reveal information about how peripheral nerves control the body’s organs.
“SPARC hopes we share the technology and we can get it into clinical trials in a few years,” says Farajidavar. “We’re honored to be among the first responders to this initiative.”
Watch a video featuring Aydin Farajidavar and his research at NYIT:
