Energy Materials for the GUT. 

There is a growing interest in the influence of our gut condition on our general health. Our microbiota is for example anticipated to have profound influence on progress and development of major human diseases, which include obesity, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, Inflammatory Bowel Disease and depression. At the same time, we lack tools for studying, detecting and treating conditions in the gut in a minimum invasive matter.

In EMGUT, we will develop and apply energy material-based solutions for minimal invasive ways of 1) sampling, 2) drug delivery and 3) sensing in the gut. Hereby, we enable our long-term vision, which is to both analyze and act upon local gut conditions and we call this gut engineering.

Soft wearables with high energy density: merging chemical biology and silicone chemistry with active compliant devices. 
Despite the growing popularity of wearables in the form of smartwatches and various fitness trackers, soft and pliable wearables, such as prosthetics, soft exoskeletons and haptics, are far from being available as commodity products. This is primarily due to the many scientific challenges of constructing inherently soft materials that are still robust and have high energy densities, such that e.g. a limb can be activated.

The vision of the WeArAble project is to advance the development of soft wearables that are ‘mechanically transparent’ in the sense that the use of the wearables is imperceptible and does not inhibit the wearer’s motion or sense of touch. By combining tissue-like soft silicone elastomers with biologically tailored materials and smart device technologies, the project aims to develop comfortable wearables with sufficient energy densities for stability and longevity. 

The outcomes of WeArAble will contribute to the shift towards mechanically transparent active wearables with meaningful applications across diverse industries (e.g., medical, sports, entertainment etc.) and create more equitable opportunities for physically impaired individuals that can benefit from soft wearable devices.