Overview

Wei Ouyang develops bio-integrated microsystems for neuroscience and healthcare innovation, with a focus on MEMS, wearables, and implantables. Prior to joining the Dartmouth faculty, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship with Prof. John A. Rogers in the Querrey Simpson Institute for Bioelectronics at Northwestern University. He received his BS in microelectronics from Peking University, China, and both his SM degree in electrical engineering and computer science and his PhD in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) under the supervision of Prof. Jongyoon Han.

Research Interests

Bioelectronics, MEMS, wearables, implantables, microfluidics, digital health, neuroengineering

Education

• BS, Microelectronics, Peking University 2013
• SM, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT 2016
• PhD, Electrical Engineering, MIT 2019

Awards

• Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-financed Students Abroad, 2020
• Dimitris N. Chorafas Foundation Prize for Excellence in Scientific Research , 2020
• The Helen Carr Peake and William T. Peake Research Prize, MIT, 2018
• Ernst A. Guillemin Thesis Award for Best Master’s Thesis in Electrical Engineering, MIT, 2016
• Siebel Scholar, Class of 2016
• CBMS Travel Grant, the Chemical and Biological Microsystems Society, 2013
• Distinguished Graduate Award, Peking University, 2013
• Best Undergraduate Thesis Award, Peking University, 2013
• Best Undergraduate Research Award, Peking University, 2013
• National Innovation Fellowship for Undergraduate Research, Ministry of Education, China, 2012
• National Embedded System Design Contest, Third Prize, Ministry of Industry and Information, China, 2012
• Dean’s Scholarship for Academic Excellence, Peking University, 2009–2013
• National Undergraduate Physics Olympiad Competition, First Prize, Beijing Physics Society, 2011

Professional Activities

• Reviewer for scientific journals, including Science Advances, Advanced Materials, Complex & Intelligent Systems, Micromachines, Sensors, Biosensors, Digital Signal Processing, Sensors & Actuators B: Chemical, Biomedical Microdevices, Measurement Science and Technology
• Reviewer Board Member, Applied Nano
• Guest Editor, Micromachines Special Issue: "Micro/Nanofluidics for Molecular Diagnostics in the COVID-19 Era"

Research Projects

• MEMS and micro/nanofluidic sensors

  MEMS and micro/nanofluidic sensors

  At the core of novel wearable and implantable devices are cutting-edge sensing technologies that can be integrated with the body. In this project, we leverage MEMS, micro/nanofluidics, and other relevant technologies to develop advanced biophysical and biochemical sensors. One example of such efforts is nanoelectrokinetics-based devices for ultra-sensitive protein biomarker detection through electrokinetic enrichment of biomolecules (Lab Chip 2017, Anal. Chem. 2018, Nanoscale 2018, PNAS 2019, Angew. Chem. 2020, etc.). https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/1...

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• Wearables and computing for healthcare innovation

  Wearables and computing for healthcare innovation

  Capabilities in continuous monitoring of key physiological parameters of disease have never been more important than in the context of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Soft, skin-mounted electronics that incorporate high-bandwidth, miniaturized motion sensors enable digital, wireless measurements of mechanoacoustic (MA) signatures of both core vital signs (heart rate, respiratory rate, and temperature) and underexplored biomarkers (coughing count) with high fidelity and immunity to ambient noises. This paper summarizes an effort that integrates such MA sensors with a cloud data infrastructure and a set of analytics approaches based on digital filtering and convolutional neural networks for monitoring of COVID-19 infections in sick and healthy individuals in the hospital and the home. The sensors, deployed on COVID-19 patients along with healthy controls in both inpatient and home settings, record coughing frequency and intensity continuously, along with a collection of other biometrics. The methodology creates opportunities to study patterns in biometrics across individuals and among different demographic groups. https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/1...

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• Wireless, battery-free, fully implantable systems for neuroscience

  Wireless, battery-free, fully implantable systems for neuroscience

  Fully implantable wireless systems for the recording and modulation of neural circuits that do not require physical tethers or batteries allow for studies that demand the use of unconstrained and freely behaving animals in isolation or in social groups. Moreover, feedback-control algorithms that can be executed within such devices without the need for remote computing eliminate virtual tethers and any associated latencies. In this project, we develop a wireless and battery-less technology of this type, implanted subdermally along the back of freely moving small animals, for the autonomous recording of electroencephalograms, electromyograms and body temperature, and for closed-loop neuromodulation via optogenetics and pharmacology. The device incorporates a system-on-a-chip with Bluetooth Low Energy for data transmission and a compressed deep-learning module for autonomous operation, that offers neurorecording capabilities matching those of gold-standard wired systems. We also show the use of the implant in studies of sleep–wake regulation and for the programmable closed-loop pharmacological suppression of epileptic seizures via feedback from electroencephalography. The technology can support a broader range of applications in neuroscience and in biomedical research with small animals. https://www.nature.com/article...

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Selected Publications

• W. Ouyang,‡ W. Lu,‡ Y. Zhang,‡ Y. Liu, J.U. Kim, H. Shen, Y. Wu, H. Luan, K. Kilner, S.P. Lee, Y. Lu, Y. Yang, J. Wang, Y. Yu, A. Wegener, J. Moreno, Z. Xie, Y. Wu, C. Wu, W. Bai, H. Guo, T.-L. Liu, H. Bai, G. Monti, J. Zhu, S. Madhvapathy, J. Trueb, M. Stanslaski, E. Higbee-Dempsey, II. Stepien, N. Ghoreishi-Haack, C. Haney, Y. Huang, R. Ghaffari, A. Banks, T. Jhou, C. Good, J.A. Rogers, "A Wireless, Battery-Free, Fully Implantable System with Embedded Artificial Intelligence for Autonomous Neurorecording and Neuromodulation," Nature Biomedical Engineering (2023): 1–18. (‡: equal contribution)
• H. Jeong,‡ J. Yoo,‡ W. Ouyang,‡ A.L.J.X Greane, A.J. Wiebe, I. Huang, Y.J. Lee, J.Y. Lee, J. Kim, X. Ni, S. Kim, H.L. Huynh, I. Zhong, Y.X. Chin, J. Gu, A.M. Johnson, T. Brancaccio, and J.A. Rogers, "Closed-Loop Network of Skin-interfaced Wireless Devices for Quantifying Vocal Fatigue and Providing User Feedback," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 120(9), e2219394120. (‡: equal contribution)
• J.-T. Kim,‡ W. Ouyang,‡ H. Hwang,‡ H. Jeong,‡ S. Kang, S. Bose, S.S. Kwak, X. Ni, H. Kim, J. Park, H. Chen, A. Soetikno, J. Kim, S. Xu, L.P. Chamorro, J.A. Rogers, "Dynamics of Plosive Consonants via Imaging, Computations, and Soft-electronics," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), 119 (46) e2214164119, 2022 (‡: equal contribution)
• H. Guo,‡ W. Bai,‡ W. Ouyang,‡ Y. Liu, C. Wu, Y. Xu, Y. Weng, H. Zang, L. Jacobson, Z. Hu, H.M. Arafa, Q. Yang, D. Lu, S. Li, L. Zhang, X. Xiao, E. Dempsey, N. Ghoreishi-Haack, E.A. Waters, C.R. Haney, A.M. Westman, M.R. MacEwan, M.A. Pet, J.A. Rogers, "Wireless, Implantable Near-Infrared Spectroscopic Probe for Continuous Monitoring of Tissue Oxygen Saturation in Free Tissue Transfer and Solid Organ Allotransplantation," Nature Communications, 13.1 (2022): 1–12. (‡: equal contribution)
• X. Ni,‡ W. Ouyang,‡ H. Jeong,‡ J.-T. Kim, A. Tzavelis, A. Mirzazadeh, C. Wu, J.Y. Lee, M. Keller, C.K. Mummidisetty, M. Patel, N. Shawen, J. Huang, H. Chen, S. Ravi, J.-K. Chang, K.H. Lee, Y. Wu, F. Lie, Y.J. Kang, J.U. Kim, L.P. Chamorro, A.R. Banks, A. Bharat, A. Jayaraman, S. Xu, and J.A. Rogers, "Automated, multiparametric monitoring of respiratory biomarkers and vital signs in clinical and home settings for COVID-19 patients," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), 118(19), 2021. (‡: equal contribution)
• W. Ouyang, and J. Han, "One‐Step Nucleic Acid Purification and Noise‐Resistant Polymerase Chain Reaction by Electrokinetic Concentration for Ultralow‐Abundance Nucleic Acid Detection," Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 132(27), 11074–11081, 2020
• W. Ouyang, and J. Han, "Universal Amplification-Free Molecular Diagnostics by Billion-fold Hierarchical Nanofluidic Concentration," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), 116(33), 16240–16249, 2019
• W. Ouyang, Z. Li, and J. Han, "Pressure-Modulated Selective Electrokinetic Trapping for Direct Enrichment, Purification, And Detection of Nucleic Acids in Human Serum," Analytical Chemistry, 90(19), 11366–11375, 2018
• W. Ouyang, X. Ye, Z. Li, and J. Han, "Deciphering Ion Concentration Polarization-based Electrokinetic Molecular Concentration at the Micro-Nanofluidic Interface: Theoretical Limits and Scaling Laws," Nanoscale, 10(32), 15187–15194, 2018
• W. Ouyang, J. Han, and W. Wang, "Enabling Electrical Biomolecular Detection in High Ionic Concentrations and Enhancement of the Detection Limit Thereof by Coupling a Nanofluidic Crystal with Reconfigurable Ion Concentration Polarization," Lab on a Chip, 7(22), 3772–3784, 2017
• W. Ouyang, J. Han, and W. Wang, "Nanofluidic Crystals: Nanofluidics in a Close-Packed Nanoparticle Array," Lab on a Chip, 17(18), 3006–3025, 2017
• W. Ouyang, S.H. Ko, D. Wu, A.Y. Wang, P. Barone, W.S. Hancock, and J. Han, "Microfluidic Platform for Assessment of Therapeutic Proteins Using Molecular Charge Modulation Enhanced Electrokinetic Concentration Assays," Analytical Chemistry, 88(19), 9669–9677, 2016

Courses

• ENGS 28: Embedded Systems

News

New Faculty Expand Scholarship at Dartmouth
Dec 15, 2023

Welcome New Faculty
Oct 02, 2023