Friday 16 October 2026 4:00pm to 5:00pm
Cambridge Graphene Centre Seminar Room, Electrical Engineering Division, 9 JJ Thomson Avenue.
This talk will explore miniaturised ingestible bioelectronic systems for real-time localisation, physiological sensing and targeted therapy, highlighting progress towards closed-loop devices that can sense and respond to the body.
About
Bioelectronic systems are creating new opportunities to continuously interrogate and modulate physiology from within the body. A major challenge, however, is to develop devices that are sufficiently miniaturised and energy-efficient to operate in vivo while retaining the capabilities required for sensing, localisation, wireless communication and therapeutic intervention. In this talk, Dr Sharma will present his group’s work on ingestible bioelectronic systems for the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, illustrating a progression from location awareness, to physiological sensing, to targeted electrical therapy.
First, he will describe a wireless localisation platform that uses magnetic-field gradients and miniaturised ingestible devices to achieve real-time, three-dimensional tracking in the GI tract, enabling knowledge of where a device is located as it moves through the body. He will then discuss a highly miniaturised ingestible temperature sensor built around a 1-mm², 10-nW complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) integrated circuit, demonstrating precise continuous internal temperature monitoring in a 6-mm-diameter device. Finally, he will present an ingestible electroceutical platform that combines programmable high-voltage stimulation, pH-based anatomical targeting and custom CMOS electronics to modulate endogenous hormone signalling in vivo.
Together, these systems illustrate how advances in integrated circuits, wireless sensing and bioelectronic interfaces can transform ingestible devices from passive diagnostic tools into location-aware, physiologically responsive systems capable of both sensing and intervention. Dr Sharma will conclude by discussing how these capabilities could ultimately be integrated into closed-loop bioelectronic platforms that sense physiological state, determine when and where intervention is required and adapt therapy in real time.
Attend this talk to:
- Understand key challenges in designing miniaturised, ultra-low-power bioelectronic systems.
- Explore approaches for wireless localisation and physiological sensing inside the body.
- Learn how custom integrated circuits enable targeted electrical stimulation and therapy.
- Understand the path toward closed-loop systems that integrate sensing, intelligence and intervention.
About the speaker
Dr Saransh Sharma, University of Cambridge
Dr Saransh Sharma is an assistant professor in bioelectronic systems in the Department of Engineering (Electrical Engineering Division) at the University of Cambridge. He received the MS and PhD degrees in electrical engineering from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), and the BTech degree in electronics and electrical communication engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur. Prior to joining Cambridge in 2026, he completed postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Dr Sharma’s research lies at the intersection of electrical and biomedical engineering, with a focus on the design of highly miniaturized and ultra-low-power bioelectronic systems for healthcare applications. His laboratory develops custom complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) integrated circuits and systems, emphasising analog and mixed-signal design to enable new classes of ingestible, implantable and wearable medical devices.
His work has been recognised through numerous awards and honours, including the Wilts Prize and the Demetriades-Tsafka-Kokkalis Award for an outstanding PhD thesis at Caltech, Lewis Winner Award for an outstanding paper at ISSCC 2024, Best Student Paper Award at CICC 2025, Charles Lee Powell Fellowship at Caltech and Excellence in Mentorship Award at Caltech for mentoring undergraduate and graduate students.