I’ll have ‘chips’ with that
Here at MPN we’ve been looking at the way microchips are helping medicine and healthcare evolve.
We looked at a range of chips being used for medical purposes and came across a variety that are helping to advance healthcare. The chips in this list range from devices for measuring glucose in tears to innovative research tools.
Diabetes contact lens
A smart contact lens has been built to continuously measure glucose in tears using a wireless chip and miniaturized glucose sensor. The smart lens technology involves non-invasive sensors, microchips and other miniaturized electronics, which are embedded within contact lenses. This device is currently being discussed by the FDA but might soon be released into the market. The Smart Contact lens could lead to a new way for people with diabetes to manage their disease.
Placenta-on-chips
The device was designed to imitate, on a micro-level, the structure and function of the placenta. Researchers are trying to learn how the placenta manages to transport some substances and block others. However, studying the placenta in humans is challenging: it’s time-consuming, subject to a great deal of variability, and potentially risky for the foetus. The researchers created the Placenta-on-a-Chip technology to address these challenges, using human cells in a structure that more closely resembles the placenta’s maternal-foetal barrier.
By National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Thrombosis-on-chips
Thrombosis-on-chips model the various factors that lead to the formation of blood clots within the body. The chip simulates the flow of blood and interaction of platelets, which help form clots. Clots stop a small wound from being life-threatening, but too much clotting can also block blood flow to organs like the brain, lungs and heart, with potentially-deadly consequences. Knowing how clots form will help drug makers come up with better ways to treat conditions like deep vein thrombosis.
Q Inside Safety Technology
This technology is currently used as an electronic serial number in breast implants and other implantable and reusable medical devices. This tech also provides physicians and patients with access to secure online databases to retrieve device-specific data, such as serial number, manufacturer name, date of manufacture, lot number, volume, size, and other data from the medical device manufacturer. Q Inside Safety Technology may also provide an extra level of protection to the patient in the event of a recall or other safety event.
By VeriTeQ
Chip under the skin
This biosensor chip is a centimetre long, placed under the skin, powered by a patch located on the skin’s surface, and can communicate with mobile phones. The future of medicine lies in precision, not only when it comes to diagnosis, but also drug dosage and this new chip is capable of simultaneously monitoring the concentration of a number of molecules, such as glucose and cholesterol, and also certain types of drugs. This tech offers constant analysis, over as long a period as possible, offering more accurate results.
By Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
Chips still cooking
This next step in Organs-on-chips technology has not reached prototype stage yet, however, at MPN, we think this is definitely a chip to keep an eye on:
You-on-a-Chip
This is an emerging approach for disease treatment and prevention that takes into account the genes, environment, and lifestyle of each person. By combining Organs-on-Chips with induced pluripotent stem cells (or iPS cells), there is the potential to open a new world of possibilities for personalized health. This technology could create individually tailored Organs-on-Chips with a patient’s own cells, to allow biology to be predicted on a person-by-person basis. Drugs and medicine could be tested on these chips and altered to fit patients’ individual medical needs.
By Emulate