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Bioelectronics Bioelectronics can be broadly defined as the merger of electronics w/ biological systems, where a bioelectronic device transduces signals from the biological system to electrical signals @ the bio-electronic interface. Nano-Bioelectronics Bioelectronic devices interfaced to electrogenic cells, such as neurons or cardiomyocytes, can record and/or stimulate bioelectrical acitivities in the cells or corresponding tissues (e.g., brain, heart or muscle), by interconverting ionic & electronic currents @ the device/cell interface. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/article… Hydrogel bioelectronics Hydrogel bioelectronics are receiving increased attention because they allow electronics to function in a highly biocompatible manner. Nanomaterials complement the shortcomings of hydrogels for bioelectronic applications, & provide new functionality in biohybrid hydrogel bioelectronics. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/article… Hydrogel Machines More recently, owing to their superior softness, wetness, responsiveness, biocompatibility, & bioactivity, hydrogels are being intensively investigated for versatile functions in devices & machines including sensors, actuators, coatings, optics, electronics, & water harvesters. In order to ensure the stable operation of hydrogel machines, it usually requires that the hydrogels are robust in terms of mechanical performance & functionality. Recent innovations in the design of tough hydrogels, tough adhesion of hydrogels to other engineering materials, & advanced fabrication methods for hydrogels have made hydrogels a promising material candidate for the next-gen machines. dspace.mit.edu/bitstreams/0d… Electrogenetic systems consist of 4 components: (I) an electrode, (II) a redox inducer, (III) a redox-transcription factor, & ( IV) its cognate promoter The electrode is held at a set potential that is used to oxidize or reduce the redox inducer, which is a cell-permeable electron mediator. The redox inducer in turn oxidizes or reduces the redox-transcription factor, which leads to activation or repression of gene expression from its cognate promoter. Unlike other inducible gene expression systems, electrochemical control of gene expression allows for electronic & genetic circuits to be directly connected to one another. The ability to combine electronic controllers easily w/ cellular biocatalysts facilitates the easy design of devices for biosensing, medical diagnostics & “therapies”, information processing, & energy conversion. Electrogenetic systems also have high spatiotemporal control compared to other widely used gene expression systems. They can be used to provide rapid oscillatory gene expression (20) & spatial gradients of gene expression across cells immobilized in hydrogels (23). Furthermore, in electrogenetic systems, gene expression can be tuned to a specific level simply by changing the electrode potential. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/article… (20) Electrical-transcriptional convertors are necessary to enable computer-mediated, electronic control of living systems & this article was one of the first to demonstrate precise electronic control of gene expression in living cells by showing how electrode activated cell permeable redox mediators could be used to control the redox sensitive transcriptional regulator SoxR in Escherichia coli. nature.com/articles/ncomms14… (23) We hypothesize that by coupling the CRISPR-based synthetic transcriptional regulators w/ electrogenetic promoter systems one would enable direct electrical control over host genome transcription. Moreover, because electronic control is mediated by simply biasing electrodes that are proximal to cell-containing media, the vast repertoire of electronic signaling & control is made accessible. nature.com/articles/s41467-0… Protein engineering & synthetic biology are being used to enable a targeting of redox inputs to actuate specific responses at molecular (i.e., protein conjugation) & cellular (i.e., electrogenetic) levels. ieeexplore.ieee.org/document…

Bioelectronics Bioelectronics can be broadly defined as the merger of electronics w/ biological systems, where a bioelectronic device transduces signals from the biological system to electrical signals @ the bio-electronic interface. Nano-Bioelectronics Bioelectronic devices interfaced to electrogenic cells, such as neurons or cardiomyocytes, can record and/or stimulate bioelectrical acitivities in the cells or corresponding tissues (e.g., brain, heart or muscle), by interconverting ionic & electronic currents @ the device/cell interface. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/article… Hydrogel bioelectronics Hydrogel bioelectronics are receiving increased attention because they allow electronics to function in a highly biocompatible manner. Nanomaterials complement the shortcomings of hydrogels for bioelectronic applications, & provide new functionality in biohybrid hydrogel bioelectronics. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/article… Hydrogel Machines More recently, owing to their superior softness, wetness, responsiveness, biocompatibility, & bioactivity, hydrogels are being intensively investigated for versatile functions in devices & machines including sensors, actuators, coatings, optics, electronics, & water harvesters. In order to ensure the stable operation of hydrogel machines, it usually requires that the hydrogels are robust in terms of mechanical performance & functionality. Recent innovations in the design of tough hydrogels, tough adhesion of hydrogels to other engineering materials, & advanced fabrication methods for hydrogels have made hydrogels a promising material candidate for the next-gen machines. dspace.mit.edu/bitstreams/0d… Electrogenetic systems consist of 4 components: (I) an electrode, (II) a redox inducer, (III) a redox-transcription factor, & ( IV) its cognate promoter The electrode is held at a set potential that is used to oxidize or reduce the redox inducer, which is a cell-permeable electron mediator. The redox inducer in turn oxidizes or reduces the redox-transcription factor, which leads to activation or repression of gene expression from its cognate promoter. Unlike other inducible gene expression systems, electrochemical control of gene expression allows for electronic & genetic circuits to be directly connected to one another. The ability to combine electronic controllers easily w/ cellular biocatalysts facilitates the easy design of devices for biosensing, medical diagnostics & “therapies”, information processing, & energy conversion. Electrogenetic systems also have high spatiotemporal control compared to other widely used gene expression systems. They can be used to provide rapid oscillatory gene expression (20) & spatial gradients of gene expression across cells immobilized in hydrogels (23). Furthermore, in electrogenetic systems, gene expression can be tuned to a specific level simply by changing the electrode potential. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/article… (20) Electrical-transcriptional convertors are necessary to enable computer-mediated, electronic control of living systems & this article was one of the first to demonstrate precise electronic control of gene expression in living cells by showing how electrode activated cell permeable redox mediators could be used to control the redox sensitive transcriptional regulator SoxR in Escherichia coli. nature.com/articles/ncomms14… (23) We hypothesize that by coupling the CRISPR-based synthetic transcriptional regulators w/ electrogenetic promoter systems one would enable direct electrical control over host genome transcription. Moreover, because electronic control is mediated by simply biasing electrodes that are proximal to cell-containing media, the vast repertoire of electronic signaling & control is made accessible. nature.com/articles/s41467-0… Protein engineering & synthetic biology are being used to enable a targeting of redox inputs to actuate specific responses at molecular (i.e., protein conjugation) & cellular (i.e., electrogenetic) levels. ieeexplore.ieee.org/document…

DARPA Microsystems Technology Office (MTO) has been expanded into the Multi X Office (MXO). Multi X Office (MXO) MXO explores materials at the atomic, molecular, and cellular scales to develop new components, tools, and processes that transform both the future battlespace and tomorrow’s economies. It advances breakthrough technologies that displace existing capabilities while also harnessing commercial innovation to deliver asymmetric advantages in today’s operational environment. darpa.mil/about/offices/mxo#… Atomically Precise Molecules (AMP) The Atomically Precise Molecules (APM) program is developing synthesis approaches that deliver programmable precision polymers (PPPs), which control the sequence, orientation, and composition of molecules with high precision. In doing so, APM aims to unlock a previously inaccessible material synthesis to capability, enabling a near-infinite palette of programmable materials. Structured as a two-phase, 36-month effort, APM will first focus on developing new chemistries before employing them to synthesize revolutionary materials and incorporate them into functional devices. Sub-nanosecond electro-optic modulators (EOMs) will serve as the initial demonstration. darpa.mil/research/programs/… Sub-nanosecond electro-optic modulators (EOMs) Sub-nanosecond electro-optic modulators (EOMs) serve as a critical foundation for next-generation neuromorphic photonics deployed at the edge. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/article… By manipulating light waves at picosecond timescales, these hardware components bridge the gap between digital electronic sensors and analog optical neural networks. Integrating sub-nanosecond electro-optic modulators (EOMs) into Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs) allows edge intelligence systems to bypass the latency and power bottlenecks inherent in traditional transistor-based von Neumann architectures. opg.optica.org/ome/fulltext.… Digital RF Battlespace Emulator (DRBE) The Digital RF Battlespace Emulator (DRBE) program aims to create the world’s first, large-scale, virtual radio frequency (RF) environment for developing, training, and testing advanced RF systems, such as radar and electronic warfare (EW) systems. The target DRBE environment will enable numerous RF systems to interact with each other in a fully closed-loop RF arena, replicating dense, responsive, real-world RF environments. RF systems increasingly use artificial intelligence (AI) to help automate and augment capabilities for defense use. To help address the rigorous demands of testing and training these AI-enabled systems 24/7/365, virtual simulators are needed. DRBE is exploring novel computing architectures to enable the creation of a new breed of High Performance Computing (HPC) – dubbed “Real Time HPC” or RT-HPC. The goal of the RT-HPC is to generate computational performance in the double-digit petaFLOPs class while maintaining single-digit microsecond scale end-to-end latency. By balancing computational throughput with extreme low latency, DRBE should be capable of generating high-fidelity RF environments. To support the creation of RT-HPC and the virtual RF test range, DRBE will: 1. Develop novel processors and application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) that realize the low-latency, high compute capacity vision. 2. Assemble these ASICs into a multi-processor RT-HPC system. 3. Design and integrate the necessary tools to demonstrate the use of the RT-HPC as a large-scale virtual RF test range. darpa.mil/research/programs/…