I-Corps: Electrostimulation-based process that uses weak alternative electric fields to stimulate and activate hair follicles in the scalp

Award ID: 2114428

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of a wearable electrostimulation hair growth cap. The proposed development of flexible and wearable nanogenerator aims at powering wearable electronic devices from relevant body motions. The goal is to enable the possibility of bypassing the bulky and rigid battery systems that currently hinder the evolution of many electronic therapeutic devices toward a wearable system. It may lead to a platform technology providing self-powered and closed-loop electronics as a new wearable or implantable solution for achieving a variety of biomedical functions, such as health monitoring, information gathering, and providing therapeutic treatments. Further, the self-powered, closed-loop electrostimulation cap may become an effective solution to cure the hair loss problem that plagues many human beings across a broad age range worldwide with an anticipated global market of $12 billion in 2024. This I-Corps project is based on the development of a self-powered, electrostimulation technology that directly converts biomechanical energy from random human body motions into continuous electric pulses without involving any battery or regulative electronics. Due to its unique energy resource and pulsed bi-phasic electricity form, directly applying the generated electricity to achieve certain therapeutic treatments may becomes effective for hair growth. This technology is distinguished from other battery-driven devices by directly coupling the biomedical functions with biomechanical energy sources, forming a closed loop of both energy flow and function feedback. In such a closed-loop electrostimulation, the stimulations are automatically responsive and synchronized to corresponding body motions, and thus impose efficient therapeutic effects without external manipulations. Successful pre-clinical results have been demonstrated self-powered electrostimulation hair regrowth on rats and nude mice. In addition, the results showed that the technology improved the secretion of a few key growth factors related to hair follicle growth, alleviating hair keratin disorder, and increasing the number of active hair follicles. The proposed technology may bring a wearable, convenient, safe, and cost effective solution to enable electrostimulation treatments to reverse baldness. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Program Director: Ruth Shuman