BiotroNiS - Materials and Systems for Bioelectronics: a network in Saxony

Duration: 01.01.2025 - 31.12.2027

Funding amount: 880,824.10€

Funding by: SAB / EFRE

Brief description:

Bioelectronics, the direct connection between living organisms and electronic systems, is one of the most significant and rapidly advancing technological developments today. This development is motivated by promising applications addressing challenges in sustainability and health. A striking demonstration of the potential and relevance of such concepts is the recent implantation of electronic components into the human brain by the company Neuralink.

Bioelectronics requires a broad interdisciplinary approach that critically benefits from new materials and concepts for electronic components and their system integration. Saxony, as a dynamic, emerging technology region, is the ideal location for a bioelectronics network: World-leading research in organic electronic materials, biomaterials, and information technologies is established here, as well as outstanding life science and biomedical research and sustainability research. The complementary expertise and infrastructures are anchored in various institutions. Establishing a strong network is an essential prerequisite for leveraging the unique opportunities of the location for global distinction in the field of bioelectronics.

The overarching goal of our "BiotroNiS" network is therefore the effective, synergistic interlinking of all Saxon research activities on materials and systems for bioelectronics. This should make it possible to jointly develop industrially exploitable technologies through radical innovation that overcome the boundaries between electronic circuits and living organisms. The focus is on the digitization of information from living tissues and the control of biological communication processes with digitized information. Ideally complementary preliminary work has already been carried out in Saxony on this globally increasingly pursued perspective, particularly in the fields of organic electronics and biofunctional materials. The task of the BiotroNiS network should be, in particular, the interlinking of research activities aimed at organic, bio-responsive electronic materials and components for dynamically variable and multimodal interaction with living organisms. By bundling competencies, this should enable the development of sensory and actuating biohybrid systems that are structurally and functionally adapted to biological tissues and optionally resorbable, in order to technologically merge biological and electronic processes.

The cross-institutional organization of research structures through BiotroNiS is thus the basis for the development of highly innovative medical and biotechnological products such as multimodal electrode systems, scaffolds controlling regeneration processes, novel human tissue and disease models, and biologically integrated microsensory and microrobotic systems. Moreover, the novel bio-interactive electronics also enables disruptive approaches for environmental technologies, food production and monitoring, as well as various other fields of application. To this end, BiotroNiS will incorporate aspects such as data security, design, social and ecological sustainability, and user acceptance at an early stage