Christopher Bettinger
Professor, Biomedical Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering
Christopher Bettinger is a professor in the Departments of Materials Science and Engineering and Biomedical Engineering. Bettinger received an S.B. in Chemical Engineering in 2003, an M.Eng. in Biomedical Engineering in 2004, and a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering in 2008 as a Charles Stark Draper Fellow, all from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He completed his postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University in the Department of Chemical Engineering as an NIH Ruth Kirschstein Fellow in 2010. He has received many honors including the MIT Department of Materials Science and Engineering Award for Outstanding Ph.D. Thesis, the ACS AkzoNobel Award for Polymer Chemistry, and the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Society Young Investigator Award. Bettinger is also a co-inventor on several patents and was a finalist in the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition.
Behind the Researcher
Edible Electronics
Integrating Medical Devices into the Human Body
Education
2008 Ph.D., Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2004 Master of Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2003 BS, Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Affiliations
Research Interests
Media mentions
AIMBE
Bettinger, Dahl, and Zhang named AIMBE Fellows
BME/MSE’s Christopher Bettinger, BME/ChemE’s Kris Dahl, and MechE’s Jessica Zhang have been elected to the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE)’s College of Fellows, Class of 2020. Zhang has also been elected as an American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Fellow (2020).
Inverse
Bettinger comments on Neuralink’s brain-machine interface
BME/MSE’s Christopher Bettinger was recently quoted in Inverse about Neuralink’s brain-machine interface (BMI). For decades, Neuralink has been developing thin, flexible electrodes that could be safely inserted into the brain by a robot; they plan to conduct human testing as early as 2020.
CMU Engineering
Revolutionizing brain aneurysm treatments
Christopher Bettinger leads an interdisciplinary project that could make brain aneurysm treatments more successful and more permanent.
Beyond Innovation, Bloomberg TV
Bettinger interviewed on edible electronics and their impact
MSE’s Chris Bettinger was recently interviewed by Michael Bancroft on Beyond Innovation, a show that airs on Bloomberg TV covering the world’s new and emerging technologies. He spoke about edible electronics, how they are created from melanin, how they work in the body, and the impact they could have on the future of drug delivery.
Correio Braziliense
Bettinger on new electronic healing device that is absorbed by the body
BME/MSE’s Chris Bettinger commented on a new electronic healing device that is absorbed by the body developed by researchers from Northwestern University and the University of Washington. “There are many materials used by doctors that can be absorbed by our body, such as polymers and metals. These compounds degrade in the body with hydrolysis, a process that changes a given substance from water,” Bettinger explained.
FutureTech Podcasts
Bettinger talks bioprinted organs
MSE/BME’s Christopher Bettinger, a member of both Next Manufacturing and the Bioengineered Organs Initiative, discussed bioengineered organs in a recent podcast on FutureTech Podcast.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Bettinger files patent for battery-powered medicine capsule
MSE/BME’s Chris Bettinger filed a patent for an ingestible capsule that can deliver medicine to the lower part of the digestive tract. The capsule is filled with medicine through a small hole, capped with a film of metal, and wired with a battery. When the precisely timed battery charge runs out, the film dissolves and the medicine is released.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Bettinger on micro-electronics for soft tissues
Chris Bettinger discussed with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette his research on micro-electronics that can attach to soft tissues in the human body and that have medical applications.
Futurism
Bettinger and Fedder create soft hydrogel brain implants
BME/MSE’s Christopher Bettinger and ECE’s Gary Fedder are part of a team that created a new soft hydrogel material for use in developing non-invasive brain implants.
The Verge
Bettinger interviewed by The Verge on brain implants
MSE/BME’s Christopher Bettinger talked with The Verge in a recent interview about developments in brain implant technology.
CMU Engineering
Interfacing with the brain
Materials science researchers at Carnegie Mellon develop new materials and processes to fabricate neural probes that mimic the mechanical properties of the nervous system.
Science Friday
Bettinger collaborates with CUNY researchers on melanin-like material discovery
BME/MSE’s Christopher Bettinger, who specializes in melanin applications for energy storage, collaborated with researchers from CUNY on discovering potential energy uses for the synthesized material. The research was featured on Science Friday.