New Implant Designed to Transform Understanding of the 'Gut-Brain'

Nov 21, 2025

Dartmouth Engineering Professor Alexander Boys, together with researchers from the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology (CEB) and Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge, have created a miniature device, thinner than the width of a hair, that can be placed between the layers of the colon. The device has captured the first-ever measurements of electrical signals in the 'second brain in our guts,' giving renewed understanding of its interconnection with the brain.

Co-first author Alexander Boys holds the miniature implant fabricated in his Regenerative Bioelectronics Lab at Dartmouth. (Photo by Robert Anderson)

Boys—co-first author on the paper, "Implantable Bioelectronics for Gut Electrophysiology," published today in Nature Communications—said, "This platform creates a pathway to a variety of therapeutic interventions in the gut, which has connotations for conditions like inflammatory bowel disease, gastroparesis, and others. The gut's nervous system has been historically difficult to access, and we show here not only that it can be done, but that we can extract fairly intricate information."

Co-first author Amparo Güemes Gonzalez added, "With our chronic implant technology, we can, for the first time, record real-time electrophysiology signals from the 'second brain' in the gut over extended periods. This allows us to study how the gut responds to physiological stimuli, such as stress, and how it reacts to treatments or dietary changes, something that wasn’t possible with previous methods. This opens the door to a much deeper understanding of gut–brain communication and its impact on health.

"It was just not possible to do this before."

CEB's Bioelectronic Systems Technology group research leader Róisín Owens said, "This new technology will build a better understanding of how the gut and brain communicate, and it could lead to new treatments for digestive and neurological disorders."

The device for interfacing with the nervous system of the gut, fabricated in the Regenerative Bioelectronics Lab at Dartmouth. (Photo by Robert Anderson)

The authors believe the secret to many neurological disorders lie in the way the enteric nervous system, the gut's own complex nervous system, and the brain interact. But it has been hard to study this interaction previously, as the gut is constantly moving and neurons are spread out and hard to reach.

The tiny device could be inserted laparoscopically as an outpatient procedure, enabling researchers to investigate like never before.

For contacts and other media information visit our Media Resources page.