Takeuchi developed a battery that was instrumental in making viable for practical use implantable cardiac defibrillators in the late 1980s. These defibrillators make the heart to regain its normal rhythm when it goes into fibrillation.

Twenty years after that breakthrough, and more than 300,000 of these units being implanted each year, most of them are powered by the battery system designed and improved by Takeuchi and his team. For this work, Takeuchi has been granted over 140 patents, an amount that is believed, is higher than held by any other woman in U.S. history. Last fall, she was among four people honored at a ceremony at the White House with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.

In general, today the piles of implantable cardiac defibrillators last five to seven years. But she and her husband and research colleague, Kenneth Takeuchi, along with Amy Marschilok are exploring even better battery systems.

Following recent advances made in the laboratory, we can expect a future in which new and better batteries for biomedical applications can, in a practical way, to revolutionize treatments for some diseases more persistent, due to make possible devices that can be implanted in the brain to treat stroke and various mental illnesses in the spinal cord to treat chronic pain, or vagal nerve system to treat migraines, anxiety, and even obesity and Alzheimer’s disease.

Source:amazings