New wireless pacemaker is powered by light

In a key advance toward wireless, minimally invasive temporary pacemakers , researchers have made a thin silicon device that lays flat on the heart’s surface and regulates heartbeat using light ( Nature 2024, DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07016-9 ). The researchers used a slim endoscopic tube to deliver and control the device on the heart of a live pig. Patients recovering from cardiac surgery sometimes get temporary pacemakers that use electrical pulses to help maintain heart rate and rhythm. Removing the device requires risky invasive surgery. Once the electrodes that deliver the pulses are embedded in the heart, targeting a different location of the organ is difficult without moving the electrodes, which can damage tissue. “We can solve these issues because our cardiac pacemaker is operated by light,” says Bozhi Tian , a physical chemist at the University of Chicago. The new device is a 2 µm thick silicon membrane that does not