A pacemaker that never needs a battery replacement could soon become reality, thanks to a device that generates its own electricity from the very heartbeat it regulates. University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers built a nanogenerator small enough to slip inside an existing leadless pacemaker, potentially letting a single implant last a patient’s entire lifetime.
Led by postdoctoral scholar Pengfei Chen under professor Xudong Wang, the team designed the device to fit inside the Medtronic Micra, the most widely used leadless intracardiac pacemaker on the market today.