Andreia T. Pereira’s project on cardiac devices wins L'Oréal Medal

Can our bodies generate energy to power and monitor implanted cardiac devices? It was with this question that the project presented by the researcher Andreia Pereira won one of the four L’Oréal Portugal Medals of Honor for Women in Science, awarded this year. The scientist will receive 15,000 euros to develop intelligent vascular prostheses capable of self-monitoring and sending warning signals to the doctor who monitors the patient using an inexhaustible source of energy.

Andreia Pereira's project, entitled “BloodStream2Power”, aims to find solutions for two of the central problems that affect people with cardiovascular diseases: risky surgeries to replace batteries in implantable electronic devices and failures in vascular prostheses, which can lead to the patient's death. Current figures from the World Health Organization (WHO) regarding the impact of cardiovascular diseases – 17.9 million deaths/year – motivated the i3S researcher to follow this path in her scientific career.

To avoid battery replacement surgeries, Andreia Pereira intends to convert mechanical energy produced by the human body (an inexhaustible source) into electrical energy to power implantable electronic heart devices such as pacemakers. To achieve this conversion, she explains, “we are going to resort to so-called biocompatible triboelectric nanogenerators, which use a technology that is smaller than the human eye can resolve, are made of materials compatible with the human organism and use friction to produce the electricity that will feed cardiac devices”.

This type of nanogenerator, guarantees Andreia Pereira, also makes it possible to monitor the devices in real time and 24 hours a day and send alert signals to the doctor accompanying the patient, in case there is a change in their normal functioning. “It's a way to prevent failures that can lead to bigger problems. For example, in the case of vascular prostheses, they may indicate a myocardial infarction, which can culminate in the patient's death”, she continues.

The knowledge generated with this investigation, adds Andreia Pereira, “is likely to be extrapolated to other implantable systems that need batteries to be powered or that can be monitored, from neurostimulators to hemodialysis fistulas and catheters”.

About the L’Oréal medals of honor

L'Oréal's support for women in science formally began in 1998, with a partnership with UNESCO that gave rise to the L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science program, which annually rewards five distinguished scientists, one from each region of the world. 125 outstanding women scientists have been awarded, five of whom have subsequently won a Nobel Prize. Inspired by this international program, in 2004, Portugal promoted the first edition of the L’Oréal Portugal Medals of Honor for Women in Science, an initiative aimed at motivating young people under 35 years old, who have a doctorate and promising projects.

Since its inception, this program has brought together L’Oréal Portugal, the UNESCO National Commission and the Foundation for Science and Technology. Since 2014, 65 young researchers have been recognized in Portugal, including nine from the University of Porto: Sandra Sousa (IBMC, 2005), Maria José Oliveira (INEB, 2009), Joana Marques (FMUP, 2010), Inês Gonçalves (INEB, 2014), Joana Tavares (IBMC, 2014), Sónia Melo (Ipatimup, 2015), Maria Inês Almeida (i3S, 2017), Joana Caldeira (i3S, 2019) and Sandra Tavares (i3S, 2021).