Perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) – the main technology used to store data in modern data centers serving the World Wide Web – and multilevel 3D magnetic memory and logic are among the technologies that became possible because of discoveries by this team.
Arguably, the most impactful technology concept pioneered in the Khizroev laboratory is bringing MagnetoElectric NanoParticles (MENPs) into biomedical applications. Unlike any other nanoparticles and/or bioreagents known to date, MENPs, owing to their magnetoelectric (quantum-mechanical) effect, allow for direct coupling of local electric fields to magnetic fields, thus unlocking the possibility of a two-way, highly targeted, and cell-type specific, wireless control of fundamental biological mechanisms, ideally, at the molecular level in real time. Unlike other alternatives, e.g., optogenetics, the MENP treatment does not require any genetic modification of the tissue, nor does it need any surgical intervention to let energy penetrate the skull and soft tissue.
MENP‑based therapy represents a transformative technological approach with the potential to enable new treatments for currently untreatable neurodegenerative diseases and cancers. First proposed in a peer‑reviewed theoretical study on wireless brain stimulation for Parkinson’s disease, published in 2012, this concept emerged from a collaboration between Professor Sakhrat Khizroev and Professor Ping Liang at the University of California, Riverside. Since its introduction in 2011, the concept of MENP‑based nanotherapy has evolved into an internationally recognized and rapidly expanding research area at the interface of engineering and medicine.
With the focus to launch grounbreaking applications of NanoMagnetoElectronics, in collaboration with our colleagues at the Miller School of Medicine and the College of Arts and Sciences as well as with researchers across the globe, we pursue the following projects:
- Wireless Two-Way Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) (with the UM Miami Project to Cure Paralysis and Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, ETH Zurich, the University of Valencia, Carnegie Mellon University, Indiana University, and the University of Southern California)
- Highly Targeted Theranostic Treatment of Currently Untreatable Cancers (with the UM NCI Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, Cellular Nanomed and the NCI Moffitt Cancer Center)
- Building Quantum Intelligence (with the Frost Institute for Data Science and Computing)
