Summary: UCLA researchers in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering have developed an implantable closed-loop system that integrates electrochemical biosensing, wireless signal transmission, and programmable drug release.
Background: Conventional disease management systems rely on single-point measurements and discrete interval drug dosing schedules, limiting the ability to track dynamic physiological changes and deliver therapy in a need-responsive manner. Symptom-based and visual monitoring provide only coarse indicators and cannot support precise or timely intervention. Wearable sensor networks have emerged as a promising solution by continuously collecting physiological and environmental data and transmitting it wirelessly to mobile devices and cloud-based platforms for analysis and decision making. Recent advancements have further enabled these systems to deliver therapeutics, including through microneedle-based patches. However, many current systems suffer from limited sensing accuracy, skin irritation, and tissue inflammation, while their bulky and rigid natures can restrict movement and reduce patient compliance. Consequently, there remains a critical need for a compact, highly precise system capable of continuously monitoring target analytes and delivering drugs safely and autonomously, without discomfort or manual intervention.
Innovation: Professor Aydin Babakhani and his research team have developed a novel closed-loop biosensing and drug-delivery platform that integrates continuous biochemical monitoring with responsive therapeutic release. The implant is capable of reliably transmitting electrochemical signals over extended distances, enabling real-time communication between in vivo sensors and external control systems. Drug delivery is dynamically regulated based on accurate biosensing of patient-specific biomarkers, with programmable parameters that allow dosing to be precisely tailored to physiological need. A two-stage relay communication architecture supports personalized therapy by linking implant-level sensing with external processing and control, thereby minimizing side effects through tight feedback and biomarker-driven modulation. Collectively, this system represents a transformative advance in disease monitoring and treatment by enabling highly accurate, miniaturized, and autonomous therapeutic control driven directly by the user’s biological signals.
Potential Applications: ● Diabetes and metabolic disease management ● Cancer drug monitoring and dosing ● Neurological and psychiatric therapies ● Post-surgical and critical care monitoring
Advantages: ● Real-time closed-loop drug delivery ● Miniaturized and implantable form factor ● Personalized, biomarker-driven dosing ● Continuous, high precision biosensing
State of Development: First description of complete invention: March 2025
Related Publications: Mathews, R. P., Habibagahi, I., Jafari Sharemi, H. J., Alderete, J. A., & Danesh, K. (2025). A miniaturized batteryless and wireless biopotential recorder with dynamic bandwidth and data rate update for power optimization. In Proceedings of the 2025 Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC). IEEE. DOI:10.1109/EMBC58623.2025.11251531
Mathews, R. P., Jafari Sharemi, H., Habibagahi, I., Jang, J., Ray, A., & Babakhani, A. (2022). Towards a miniaturized, low power, batteryless, and wireless bio-potential sensing node. In Proceedings of the 2022 IEEE Biomedical Circuits and Systems Conference (BioCAS) (pp. ___). IEEE. DOI:10.1109/BioCAS54905.2022.9948685 H. Lyu, Z. Wang and A. Babakhani, "A UHF/UWB Hybrid RFID Tag With a 51-m Energy-Harvesting Sensitivity for Remote Vital-Sign Monitoring," in IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, vol. 68, no. 11, pp. 4886-4895, Nov. 2020, doi: 10.1109/TMTT.2020.3017674.
Reference: UCLA Case No. 2025-276
Lead Inventor: Professor Aydin Babakhani