Novel bio-inspired energy harvesting and storage all-in-one platform for implantable devices based on peptide nanotechnology

Introduction

Over the past decades, implantable biomedical systems have greatly advanced, offering previously unavailable therapeutic options for millions of patients worldwide. Such applications most commonly utilize conventional lithium-ion batteries as the energy source.

Limitations of Lithium-Ion Batteries

However, while readily providing adequate energetic performance, lithium-ion batteries have several drawbacks:

• They are inflexible and rigid.
• They may contain toxic substances.
• They require periodic replacement surgeries due to their limited capacity, posing both health risks and an economic burden.

Project Overview

To address these issues, we will develop PepZoPower, a biocompatible energy harvesting and storage device designed for biomedical applications.

Energy Harvesting

Energy harvesting will be facilitated by highly efficient piezoelectric peptide-based assemblies that allow for the harvesting of mechanical energy from the human body and converting it into electric energy.

Energy Storage

The harvested mechanical energy will be stored by a biocompatible peptide-based supercapacitor, thus giving rise to an autonomous, miniaturized, controllable, and biocompatible power device with adequate performance and mechanical properties.

Technical Approach

This ambitious goal will be achieved by utilizing our patent-protected piezoelectric and energy storage peptide-based supramolecular structures, which will be incorporated into an integrated device.

Optimization and Validation

• The performance of each layer will be optimized.
• The integrated PepZoPower device will be validated to verify the efficient incorporation of the two components.

Future Vision

We envision the breakthrough PepZoPower technology to serve as the basis for the next leap toward biocompatible, soft, miniaturized, lightweight, and morphologically controllable implantable devices.

Commercial Exploitation

This will pave the way toward post-project commercial exploitation of the PepZoPower system, which will be further developed by a spin-off company to be integrated into implantable devices ranging from cardiac defibrillators to spinal cord stimulators, opening a huge market opportunity for this radically new technology.