Philipp Gutruf

Philipp Gutruf

Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering
Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Assistant Professor, BIO5 Institute
Craig M Berge Faculty Fellow
Member of the Graduate Faculty
Primary Department
Department Affiliations

Research Interest

Dr. Philipp Gutruf is an Assistant Professor in the Biomedical Engineering Department at the University of Arizona and leads the Gutruf Lab. He received his postdoctoral training in the Rogers Research Group at Northwestern University and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) where he developed a broad set of soft, highly miniaturized wireless battery free tools for the characterization and stimulation of biological systems. Dr. Gutruf received his PhD in 2016 at RMIT University where he worked on oxide based stretchable electronics, sensors and photonics, with emphasis on device fabrication and material concepts for intrinsically stretchable devices. He has authored over 23 journal articles and received 4 patents and his work has been highlighted on 6 journal covers. He has also been the recipient of prestigious scholarships and fellowships such as the International Postgraduate Research Scholarship (IPRS) and the Australian Nano Technology Network Travel Fellowship. The Gutruf Lab`s research focuses on creating devices that intimately integrate with biological systems by unifying innovations in soft materials, photonics and electronics to create systems with broad impact on health diagnostics and neuroscience.

Publications

Ausra, J., Munger, S.J., Azami, A., Burton, A., Peralta, R., Miller, J.E., and Gutruf, P. (2021) Wireless Battery Free Fully Implantable Multimodal Recording and Neuromodulation Tools for Songbirds. Nature Communications 12: 1968. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-22138-8 Epub Mar 30. PMID: 33785751

BIO5 Collaborators
Julie Elizabeth Miller, Philipp Gutruf

Wireless battery free and fully implantable tools for the interrogation of the central and peripheral nervous system have quantitatively expanded the capabilities to study mechanistic and circuit level behavior in freely moving rodents. The light weight and small footprint of such devices enables full subdermal implantation that results in the capability to perform studies with minimal impact on subject behavior and yields broad application in a range of experimental paradigms. While these advantages have been successfully proven in rodents that move predominantly in 2D, the full potential of a wireless and battery free device can be harnessed with flying species, where interrogation with tethered devices is very difficult or impossible. Here we report on a wireless, battery free and multimodal platform that enables optogenetic stimulation and physiological temperature recording in a highly miniaturized form factor for use in songbirds. The systems are enabled by behavior guided primary antenna design and advanced energy management to ensure stable optogenetic stimulation and thermography throughout 3D experimental arenas. Collectively, these design approaches quantitatively expand the use of wireless subdermally implantable neuromodulation and sensing tools to species previously excluded from in vivo real time experiments.