Drinkable Electronic Sensors
Swiss scientists have designed microsensors that are tiny enough to pass into the blood stream and congregate at a disease site where they would transmit data via telemetry. As they describe it: “The microscopic sensors would be cube-shaped and have three complementary electrodes on their surfaces. After a patient swallows them, they would pass through the intestinal walls via the natural process of endocytosis. But that process can happen only if the patient’s body thinks the sensors are bacteria or red blood cells. So the scientists plan to cover the sensors with a special coating and shrink them to 10 µm on each side. Once the sensors enter the blood stream, they would travel to the affected area and attach to diseased cells using targeted ligands such as antibodies. From there they could track the disease’s progress.” MORE
Image Credit: Jamani Caillett, EPFL