US Patent 7898156 - Piezoelectric nanowire electrical generator

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7898156.html

This patent is from Georgia Tech Research Corporation and teaches a small scale electrical generator formed from piezoelectric nanowires which may be useful to power biomedical implants. Claim 1 reads:

1. A method of generating electricity, comprising the actions of:

a. growing a plurality of living cells on an array of piezoelectric nanowires so that the cells engage the piezoelectric nanowires; and

b. extracting induced static potentials from at least one of the piezoelectric nanowires when at least one of the cells deforms the at least one of the piezoelectric nanowires.