Graphene ‘tattoo’ pacemaker that wraps around the heart is thinnest yet

US researchers have developed the first cardiac implant made from graphene. The thinnest cardiac implant to date, the ‘graphene tattoo’ works like a conventional pacemaker – sensing heartbeat irregularities and then stimulating the heart.

As the device is made of graphene, it is conductive, biocompatible and capable of being moulded to the soft, wet, dynamic muscle tissue of the heart. Also, as it is transparent, the team led by Igor Efimov  – a biomedical engineering and medicine professor at Northwestern University in Illinois – was able to use light to track and modulate heart rhythm in their rodent study.