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A bright future for self-sustainable bioelectronics

Nature Reviews Electrical Engineering volume 2, pages 338–349 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

Self-sustainable bioelectronic devices that incorporate physiological synchronization functions are attracting increasing research interest because they could provide the variable functions required by living cells and tissues. However, from the popular viewpoint, self-sustainable bioelectronic devices are presently regarded to provide unidirectional stimulation, similarly to traditional bioelectronic devices that prompt cells and tissues to passively respond to the electrical cues delivered to them. The active effect of self-sustainable bioelectronic devices, which allows cells and/or tissues to autonomously alter the delivered electrical stimulation on demand, has not been fully recognized. This Perspective article presents the insight that self-sustainable bioelectronics could act as a bidirectional ‘bridge’ linking the electrical modulation of a cell or tissue with its growth and development requirements, thereby establishing a fully autonomous, closed-loop regulatory system. The interaction processes arising in microscopic (cell–piezoelectric material) and macroscopic (organ–electromechanically coupled device) systems are discussed, and typical examples of self-sustainable bioelectronics are presented, highlighting the key challenges of signal fidelity and long-term device stability. Predictions of the future trajectory of self-sustainable bioelectronics, and design considerations for the next generation of intelligent bioelectronic devices, are also included.

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Fig. 1: The interplay between self-sustainable bioelectronics and biological systems.
Fig. 2: Bidirectional interactions at cell–piezoelectric material interfaces.
Fig. 3: Technology roadmap for self-sustainable bioelectronics.

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Acknowledgements

Z.-Q.F., F.J. and T.L. received financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grants 82302406, 82472159, 52303186, 51773093 and 11204033). F.J. and T.L. acknowledge funding from China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (grants 2024T171167, 2023M731696, 2022TQ0158 and 2022M721616). F.J. and T.L. acknowledge funding from Jiangsu Funding Program for Excellent Postdoctoral Talent (grants 2023ZB539 and 2022ZB250). F.J. and Z.-Q.F received financial support from the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (grants 30923010307 and 30920041105).

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Fei Jin, Tong Li, Zhidong Wei, Lili Qian.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, China

    Fei Jin, Tong Li, Zhidong Wei, Lili Qian, Negar Javanmardi & Zhang-Qi Feng

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

    Fei Jin, Tong Li & Steven Wang

  3. State Key Laboratory of Digital Medical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, China

    Ting Wang

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  1. Fei Jin
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  2. Tong Li
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  7. Steven Wang
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  8. Zhang-Qi Feng
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Contributions

S.W. and F.J. researched data for the article and contributed substantially to discussions of its content. S.W., F.J., T.L., Z.W., L.Q., N.J. and Z.-Q.F. wrote the manuscript. All authors contributed to the review and/or editing of the manuscript before submission.

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Correspondence to Steven Wang or Zhang-Qi Feng.

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Nature Reviews Electrical Engineering thanks Soyun Joo, who co-reviewed with Seungbum Hong, and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Jin, F., Li, T., Wei, Z. et al. A bright future for self-sustainable bioelectronics. Nat Rev Electr Eng 2, 338–349 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44287-025-00164-8

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