How Did Esther Sans Takeuchi Help Hearts Keep Their Beat?

We all depend on our hearts to keep a steady rhythm. For those with arrhythmia, or an irregular heartbeat, an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) can be lifesaving. This small medical device is placed under the skin to monitor the heartbeat, and if it senses a dangerous rhythm, it sends an electrical shock to the heart to get its beat back on track.

National Inventors Hall of Fame^® Inductee Esther Sans Takeuchi helped power these important devices by developing and advancing the lithium/silver vanadium oxide (Li/SVO) battery technology used to keep them running. Read on to learn more about this energy storage expert and her worldwide impact.

Valuing Education

Takeuchi was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on Sept. 8, 1953, and she grew up in Akron, Ohio. Her parents had come to the U.S. as refugees from Latvia following World War II.

“Basically, they came to the U.S. with nothing,” Takeuchi said in an interview with the National Inventors Hall of Fame. “They had a suitcase with whatever belongings they had, and that was it.” In Latvia, her mother earned a degree in economics and later worked in home healthcare in the U.S., and her father became an electrical engineer for Goodyear Aerospace Corp.

Even as a child, Takeuchi was driven to follow her curiosity and find out how things work. She remembers exploring parks with her brother and breaking open used golf balls to investigate what was inside. “That was a delightful thing, that we would take apart these golf balls, unwrap these giant rubber bands, and then recover the core small rubber balls that we could play with afterwards,” she said.

Her parents encouraged her interests and emphasized the value of education. “My father said that circumstances in life can change, as they had witnessed in their own lives where they basically lost everything,” Takeuchi said. “But he said, ‘If you have an education, that's something that nobody can ever take away from you.’”

Takeuchi earned a bachelor’s degree in history and chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania in 1975, and in 1981, she earned her doctorate in organic chemistry from Ohio State University, where she met her husband Kenneth Takeuchi, an inorganic chemist who has been her mentor for her entire career. She did postdoctoral work at the University of North Carolina and later at the University at Buffalo.

Making the World a Better Place

In 1984, Takeuchi joined Greatbatch Inc., a major supplier of pacemaker batteries — and later ICD batteries — as a senior chemist. At the time, ICDs had proven to be effective in preventing sudden death in patients with a high risk of a life-threatening arrhythmia, but the batteries used in them had a short lifespan. They would typically last just 12 to 18 months, which put patients at risk.

“In order to replace the battery you’d need to do surgery and replace the whole device, and surgery every year for someone who has heart disease to begin with is just not a good idea,” Takeuchi explained.

In her first project at Greatbatch, she took on the challenge of creating a small, powerful ICD battery that could last up to five years. Working on this project for a year, Takeuchi successfully demonstrated the Li/SVO battery. Its cathodes used two metals, silver and vanadium, rather than just one, allowing for more energy content and higher power. The Li/SVO chemistry also enabled the ICD to monitor the battery’s level of discharge, so it could reliably predict its end of service.

In 1985, the first two models of the Li/SVO battery were sold to Telectronics in Australia and Cardiac Pacemakers Inc. (CPI) in the U.S. The first human implant of the Li/SVO battery was done in Australia using a Telectronics product, and CPI received Food and Drug Administration approval of its battery model. Today, people throughout the world benefit from ICDs, including more than 800,000 Americans. Nationwide, about 150,000 ICDs are implanted each year.

Reflecting on the impact of her work, Takeuchi said, “It's really great to know that you can make a positive impact on society and make the world a better place.”

Takeuchi worked for Greatbatch for 22 years and became chief scientist at the Center for Excellence in 2006. In 2007, she joined the University at Buffalo and served as Greatbatch Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Chemistry. In 2012, she moved to Stony Brook University, where she serves as a SUNY Distinguished Professor, and William and Jane Knapp Chair of Energy and the Environment with a joint appointment as chief scientist at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. She also leads the Interdisciplinary Science Department at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Named on more than 150 U.S. patents, Takeuchi has received many honors and awards, including the National Medal of Technology and Innovation in 2008. This is the highest honor awarded in the U.S. for technological achievement.

Looking to the future, Takeuchi said, “I think that science can help lead us to the type of world we want to live in. We can solve problems, we can improve medicine, medical devices, and knowing that there's the next generation of students who care about these things and are educated to take on these challenges is really a motivation.”

See Her Story

To watch Takeuchi tell her story in her own words, don’t miss this new video created by the National Inventors Hall of Fame, in partnership with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Shot at Brookhaven National Laboratory and the Advanced Energy Research and Technology Center at Stony Brook University, it offers a unique look into her life and work.

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