Jun Chen, PhD

The magnetoelastic effect, also named as Villari effect and discovered in 1865 by Italian experimental physicist Emilio Villari, is the variation of the magnetic field of a material under mechanical stress. This effect is usually observed in rigid metal and metal alloys with an externally applied magnetic field and has been ignored in the field of soft bioelectronics for the following three reasons: the magnetization variation in the biomechanical stress range is limited; the requirement of the external magnetic field induces structural complexity and bulky structure, and there exists a gigantic mismatch of mechanical modulus up to six orders of magnitude difference between the rigid magnetoelastic materials and the soft human tissues. In 2021, Chen directed his research group at UCLA to discover the giant magnetoelastic effect in a solid soft polymer system (Nat. Mater. 2021; Front Cover; Research Highlighted by Nature), later in a liquid permanent fluidic magnet (Nat. Mater. 2024; Nat. Electron. 2024), which paves a fundamentally new way to build up intrinsically waterproof and biocompatible soft bioelectronics for diagnostics, therapeutics, and energy applications. Chen research group at UCLA is currently pioneering such research efforts.

Y. Zhou, X. Zhao, J. Xu, Y. Fang, G. Chen, Y. Song, S. Li, J. Chen*. Giant Magnetoelastic Effect in Soft Systems for Bioelectronics. Nature Materials, 20, 1670-1676 (2021) 

X. Zhao, Y. Zhou, Y. Song, J. Xu, J. Li, T. Tat, G. Chen, S. Li, J. Chen*. Permanent Fluidic Magnets for Liquid Bioelectronics. Nature Materials, 23,703–710 (2024)

X. Zhao, Y. Zhou, A. Li, J. Xu, S. Karjagi, E. Hahm, L. Rulloda, J. Li, J. Hollister, P. Kavehpour, J. Chen*. A Self-Filtering Liquid Acoustic Sensor for Voice Recognition. Nature Electronics, 7, 924–932 (2024)

J. Yin, S. Wang, T. Tat, J. Chen*. Motion Artifact Management in Soft Bioelectronics. https://www.nature.com/articles/s44222-024-00175-4. Nature Reviews Bioengineering, 2, 541–558 (2024).

A. Libanori, G. Chen, X. Zhao, Y. Zhou, J. Chen*. Smart Textiles for Personalized Healthcare. Nature Electronics, 5, 142-156 (2022)