CMU Neural Engineering Virtual Seminars
Seminar Title: Miniature Neurotech: Concept to Commercialization
Speaker: Dr Jacob Robinson, Professor of ECE and Bioengineering, Rice University
Abstract: Miniature electronic devices implanted in the body to manipulate and record biological signals promise to improve the way we diagnose and treat disease. One important class of these “bioelectronics” are millimeter-scale devices that communicate wirelessly through bone and tissue. These devices could create a distributed network for closed-loop control of physiological processes. Magnetic fields are ideal for addressing these devices because magnetic fields are not absorbed or scattered by bone or tissue. In this talk, I will discuss how we can create miniature biodevices that capture power and data from externally applied magnetic fields using magnetoelectric materials. I will also share my recent journey to transition this technology into a startup company focused on using miniature bioelectronics to address difficult-to-treat mental health conditions.
About the Speaker: Jacob Robinson is a Professor in Electrical & Computer Engineering and Bioengineering at Rice University, and an Adjunct Professor in Neuroscience at Baylor College of Medicine. His research group uses nanofabrication technology to create miniature devices to manipulate and monitor neural circuit activity. He received a B.S. in Physics from UCLA in 2003 and a Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Cornell University in 2008. He then began a postdoctoral research position in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University, where he created silicon nanowire devices to probe the electrical and chemical activity of living cells. In 2012, he joined the ECE and BioE departments at Rice. Dr. Robinson is a performer on several DARPA neurotech and bioelectronics programs and currently leads one of the N3 teams creating non-surgical neural interfaces. Dr. Robinson is the recipient of the DARPA Young Faculty Award, the Materials Today Rising Star Award, and is a Senior Member of IEEE. He previously served as the co-chair of the IEEE Brain Initiative and a core member of the IEEE Brain Neuroethics working group. He is the co-founder and CEO of Motif Neurotech, a neurotechnology company founded in 2022 out of his work on bioelectronics for wireless management of depression, started at Rice University with collaborators at Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, TX.