Light and optogenetics enable less painful and battery-free pacemaker

The study, detailed in a paper published in Science Advances, was directed by researchers in the Gutruf Lab at the University of Arizona, led by biomedical engineering assistant professor and Craig M. Berge Faculty Fellow Philipp Gutruf.

Pacemakers regulate the heartbeats of people with chronic heart diseases like atrial fibrillation and other forms of arrhythmia, but implantation is an invasive procedure and the lifesaving pacing the devices provide can be extremely painful.

Currently available pacemakers work by implanting one or two leads into the heart with hooks or screws. If the sensors on these leads detect a dangerous irregularity, they send an electrical shock through the heart to reset the beat.

"All of the cells inside the heart get hit at one time, including the pain receptors, and that's what makes pacing or defibrillation painful," Gutruf said in a statement. "It affects the heart muscle as a whole."

Yet to be tested on humans, the device, which uses light and optogenetics, would allow pacemakers to send much more targeted signals using a new digitally manufactured mesh design that encompasses the entire heart.