The world’s smallest pacemaker, developed by Northwestern researchers, has been named one of the “Best Inventions of 2025” by Time magazine.
The pacemaker — created by a team of engineers led by McCormick Prof. John Rogers — was designed after cardiac surgeons at the Feinberg School of Medicine reached out about developing a wireless electrical device that could operate in the body without any external interference and dissolve by itself, Rogers said.
Traditional pacemakers only work through a wired connection to a machine and are activated by light, he added.
The surgical removal process can lead to tissue damage and potential internal bleeding, Rogers said. The device was designed to make using a pacemaker more comfortable and convenient, he said.
“It turns out that that temporary pacing is in many cases most important for infants who have to undergo a cardiac surgery,” Rogers said. “In those instances, you want the pacemaker to be as small as possible to impose minimal burden on the heart and patient.”
Rogers said the technology is only at the beginning of a lengthy approval process for the technology to be used in hospitals.
Nevertheless, he said he is confident in the features and safety of the pacemaker.
“It’s brand-new technology,” Rogers said. “It’s been studied extensively with animal models — small animals and medium-sized animals, showing that it can work in those contexts. Through our clinical collaborators, we have access to human hearts from organ donors, so we’re able to demonstrate the devices in the context of a human scale.”
Rogers said the pacemaker making the list is a nice way to highlight the work of his broad research team including professors, postdoctoral students, Ph.D. students and undergraduates.
He also said he hopes the project will inspire others to pursue careers in scientific research.
“I’m happy for them that this work is under the spotlight in this sense,” Rogers said. “It’s good to bring awareness of what engineering can bring to human health and that awareness can be important in encouraging the next generation to think about this path as a career choice.”
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