This "smaller than a single grain of rice" light-powered pacemaker is the world's smallest

Engineers at Northwestern University have developed an ultraminiature pacemaker that can be non-invasively injected into the body. Designed to fit within the tip of a syringe, the device offers a novel approach to addressing heart conditions, particularly in newborns with congenital heart defects. The findings were recently published in the journal Nature.

The pacemaker, which is "smaller than a grain of rice," is made for temporary pacing needs. It is accompanied by a soft, flexible, wireless wearable device that is attached to the patient’s chest. This wearable monitors heart activity and uses light pulses to activate the pacemaker whenever an irregular heartbeat is detected. These light signals penetrate through skin, bone, and muscle to ensure consistent pacing.

The most notable feature of the pacemaker is its ability to dissolve once its function is complete. Composed entirely of biocompatible materials, the device naturally breaks down in the body’s biofluids, eliminating the need for surgical removal.

“We have developed what is, to our knowledge, the world’s smallest pacemaker,” said John A. Rogers, a bioelectronics researcher at Northwestern who led the development. “There’s a crucial need for temporary pacemakers in the context of pediatric heart surgeries, and that’s a use case where size miniaturization is incredibly important. In terms of the device load on the body — the smaller, the better.”

The pacemaker’s design is particularly beneficial for newborns, whose small, delicate hearts require precise and minimally invasive solutions. Igor Efimov, an experimental cardiologist at Northwestern and co-lead of the study, highlighted this application. “Our major motivation was children,” Efimov stated. “About 1% of children are born with congenital heart defects — regardless of whether they live in a low-resource or high-resource country. The good news is that these children only need temporary pacing after a surgery. In about seven days or so, most patients’ hearts will self-repair. But those seven days are absolutely critical. Now, we can place this tiny pacemaker on a child’s heart and stimulate it with a soft, gentle, wearable device. And no additional surgery is necessary to remove it.”

The study demonstrated the pacemaker's effectiveness across multiple tests involving both large and small animal models, as well as human hearts from deceased organ donors. This work builds upon a previous collaboration between Rogers and Efimov, during which they developed the first dissolvable device for temporary heart pacing. Temporary pacemakers are often required after surgeries, either as a bridge to permanent devices or to aid recovery by restoring a normal heart rate.

The team hopes their work will address critical needs for patients requiring short-term cardiac support, particularly newborns recovering from surgery.

Source: Northwestern University (link1, link2), Nature

This article was generated with some help from AI and reviewed by an editor.

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