Skip to main content

MIT’s smart capsule could be used to release drugs in response to a fever

MIT

With a few minor modifications, the experience of taking medication in either tablet or capsule form has stayed pretty much the same for more than 100 years. Things may be starting to change, however. Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Draper, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital have developed a cutting-edge 3D-printed capsule controlled using Bluetooth technology. The capsule is designed to be ingested by a patient, after which it can transmit and receive information to and from the outside world. It can also be instructed to gradually release drugs over an extended period of time in response to symptoms.

The researchers demonstrated their next-generation drug capsule in a pig animal model. Through Bluetooth, the tiny Y-shaped capsule communicated the core body temperature of the pig and was triggered to carry out timed drug release.

“We see this system as one capable of serving as a platform for mobile health applications,” Giovanni Traverso, a visiting scientist in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, who officially joins the campus next year, told Digital Trends.

Traverso gave two illustrations of how an ingestible capsule such as this might be used. In one scenario, it could monitor a person’s core body temperature over multiple weeks, looking for signs of hypothermia (an unusually cold body temperature) or hyperthermia (an unusually high body temperature). In the event that this was discovered, it could then release a drug intended to aid in early intervention. In another scenario, it could be used to carry out temperature monitoring in patients at high risk of infection, such as those with heavily immunosuppressed immune systems.

The researchers plan to continue their research by developing a broader set of sensor systems, capable of measuring more than just core body temperature. In previous work, the team designed sensors able to detect vital signs including heart rate and breathing rate. Traverso said that clinical trials are planned for human subjects, although these are likely a few years away. “We aim to translate these technologies into human applications over the coming three to five years,” he said.

MIT is not the only group interested in similar technologies. In Australia, researchers have been working to develop ingestible sensors, designed to monitor gas biomarkers in the gut and transmit this data to mobile devices. While not quite ready for prime time, these smart capsules have already been put through a phase 1 trial on 26 healthy individuals to show their safety and efficacy.

It seems that this kind of science-fiction-sounding technology may not be quite so far off as we once thought!

Editors' Recommendations

Luke Dormehl
I'm a UK-based tech writer covering Cool Tech at Digital Trends. I've also written for Fast Company, Wired, the Guardian…
Future medical implants could be charged through the skin using sound
best accidental inventions pacemaker 2

KAUST demo

Whether it’s pacemakers for regulating heartbeats or special pumps for releasing insulin, electronic implants are already a big part of modern medicine. As we continue to move into a cyborg future, similar implants are only going to become more common. But how do you power these devices? Switching out batteries isn’t so easy to do when it potentially involves a surgical procedure simply to locate the implant in question.

Read more
MIT researchers create a smart wallpaper that improves devices’ signal strength
rfocus smart wallpaper boosts signal strength

The range and variety of smart devices continues to grow ever greater. Researchers from the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab have found a way that will allow them to design a surface that should reflect and amplify wireless signals. The discovery is described as a type of “smart wallpaper,” and it should allow Wi-Fi to be added to devices that are too small to have wireless antennae of their own. The smart surface is called RFocus, and the most interesting part is that it doesn’t require a power source of its own. The signal amplification is performed thanks to the physical shape of small antennae on the wallpaper.

Smart home technology comes in all shapes and sizes, but by its nature it has to be connected. This restricts its minimum size due to the need for a wireless antennae. The smart wallpaper could, in theory, allow manufacturers to reduce the size of future devices. The wallpaper’s ability to reflect a signal circumvents the problems encountered with smaller devices that struggle to maintain a reliable signal.

Read more
New ‘shady’ research from MIT uses shadows to see what cameras can’t
mit csail blind inverse light

Computational Mirrors: Revealing Hidden Video

Artificial intelligence could soon help video cameras see lies just beyond what the lens can see -- by using shadows. Researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) have concocted an algorithm that “sees” what’s out of the video frame by analyzing the shadows and shading that out-of-view objects create. The research, Blind Inverse Light Transport by Deep Matrix Factorization, was published today, Dec. 6.

Read more