Abstract:
Electroconductive hydrogels, composites of inherently conductive and electroactive polymers within cross-linked, highly hydratable polymers, are introduced. Formed from natural (e.g., chitosan) or synthetic (e.g., poly(HEPMA) hydrogels and conductive polymers such as polypyrroles, polyanilines or polythiophenes, their methods of synthesis, microform fabrication, and post-fabrication conditioning are presented and compared. The resulting electrical/electrochemical and hydration characteristics are described. Among the areas of clinical interest are as materials to engender biocompatible ABIO-biointerfaces in neurostimulation devices, conductive wound patches in cardiac repair, and in electro-stimulated release of drugs/factors to support tissue regeneration. The compositional dependence of performance of these materials as scaffolds in tissue and regenerative engineering are explored via the study of viability and proliferation of various cell types (PC12, RMS13, HUVEC). Hybrid electronic-ionic conductivity influences cellular behavior on electroconductive hydrogels. Methods to confer biocompatibility, bioactivity and bio-specificity to these stimuli-responsive Sensing, Measuring, and Actively Responding, Technical (SMART) materials when employed in biosensors are presented and compared. Small changes in composition confer dramatic changes in biotechnical properties such as total hydration, bound:free water ratio, and electrical conductivity. Active research and product development in this area supports continued development of these novel biomaterials.

Bio:
Dr. Anthony Guiseppi-Elie is President and Senior Fellow of the American International Institute of Medical Sciences, Engineering, and Innovation (AIIMSEI.org). He currently also serves as a Senior Dresden Fellow and Visiting Distinguished Professor at the Technical University of Dresden, Germany, and as a TEES Collaborator in Technolgy Transition at Texas A&M University, USA.
Dr. Guiseppi-Elie brings over three decades of experience bridging academia, industry, and innovation. He has spent 15 years in industrial research and product development, and 18 years as a tenured, titled, and endowed professor at leading institutions including Virginia Commonwealth University, Clemson University, Texas A&M University (TAMU), and Anderson University. At TAMU, he was Head of the Department of Biomedical Engineering and co-founded the Engineering Medicine (ENMED) program, where he also served as the Founding Associate Dean of Engineering Innovation. At Anderson University, he was Vice President of Industry Relations and Founding Dean of the College of Engineering. His academic appointments span departments of Chemical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Emergency Medicine. He earned his Sc.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the MIT, M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Manchester (UMIST), and B.Sc. (First Class Honors) from the University of the West Indies (UWI). He has published over 225 peer-reviewed publications, holds 8 U.S. patents, and has an h-index of 52 (10,300 citations) (May 2025). He has been an IEEE-EMBS Distinguished Lecturer, the 2013 Avis Visiting Professor in Pharmaceutics at the University of Tennessee, a Fulbright Specialist (2015–2019), and has since 2020 been named by Stanford University to the top 2% of scientists worldwide. He is a Fellow of IEEE, AIMBE, BMES, RSC, and RSM. His research focuses on physiological monitoring during hemorrhagic trauma and allotransplantation, polymeric nanobiomaterials for drug delivery and tissue regeneration, and the development of microanalytical systems for advancing human health and medicine.