Medicine

In an effort to help medical professionals ensure patients are taking medications as prescribed, researchers at MIT have developed a “drug capsule containing an RFID tag that uses radiofrequency (RF) signals to communicate that it has been swallowed, and then bioresorbs into the body,” reports Tami Freeman for Physics World. “Medication non-adherence remains a major cause of preventable morbidity and cost, but existing ingestible tracking systems rely on non-degradable electronics,” explains Prof. Giovanni Traverso. Our motivation was to create a passive, battery-free adherence sensor that confirms ingestion while fully biodegrading, avoiding long-term safety and environmental concerns associated with persistent electronic devices.”  

Prof. Giovanni Traverso speaks with Claudia Hammond of BBC Health Check about a new pill he and his colleagues have developed that can send an alert when it’s been swallowed, which could help ensure patients are taking their medications as prescribed. “Researchers have estimated that in the US alone, people not taking their medication contributes to as many as 125,000 preventable deaths each year and costs more than $100 billion,” says Hammond. 

Researchers at MIT have developed an ingestible “smart pill” that uses radio frequency to communicate from the stomach when patients have taken their medications. “It may sound simple, but the stakes are high,” reports McKenzie Beard for the New York Post. “Studies show that half of all Americans with chronic conditions don’t take their long-term medications as prescribed.” 

Researchers at MIT have developed an ingestible pill that “contains a biodegradable radiofrequency antenna” which can be used to monitor patients’ medication intake, reports Nancy Lapid for Reuters. “After [the antenna] sends out the signal that the pill has been consumed, most components break down in the stomach while a tiny radiofrequency chip passes out of the body through the digestive tract,” explains Lapid. 

Prof. Giovanni Traverso and his colleagues have developed a pill that can report when it has been swallowed, which could be used to ensure patients are taking their medicine correctly. “According to the World Health Organization, nearly 50% of patients in need of long-term treatment do not take their medication as prescribed,” reports Inside Precision Medicine. “This new reporting system could be beneficial for a wide range of patient populations.” 

Researchers at MIT have developed an ingestible pill that can communicate from the stomach and could help monitor patients' medication use, reports Prabhat Ranjan Mishra for Interesting Engineering.  “After it sends out the signal that the pill has been consumed, most components break down in the stomach while a tiny RF chip passes out of the body through the digestive tract," writes Mishra. 

Prof. Lonnie Petersen speaks with Benjamin Rachlin, executive editor of MIT Horizon, about the future of space medicine in an article for The Boston Globe. “The next generation of flight surgeons might work from orbit. They might accompany a crew on a long-term mission, like a medic with a platoon,” writes Rachlin. “There is no standard yet for medical care in space. Doctors are inventing it.” Petersen notes that: “Space is like New York. If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.”

Researchers at MIT have developed microscopic devices that “can travel autonomously through the blood and provide electrical stimulation to precise brain regions,” and could one day be used to treat brain diseases, mental illness, or other parts of the body, reports Zoe Kriegler for Medical Design & Outsourcing. The development of microscopic wireless electronic devices (SWEDs) could “eliminate the need for brain surgery in some cases, decreasing the risk to the patient and the expense of the procedure by hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Kriegler explains. 

Prof. Deblina Sarkar speaks with Forbes reporter William A. Haseltine about her work developing “circulatronics,” microscopic electronics devices that could one day be used to help treat brain diseases. “What we have developed are tiny electronic devices that can travel through body fluids and autonomously find their target regions, with no external guidance or imaging,” explains Sarkar. “They provide very precise electrical stimulation of neurons without the need for surgery.” 

Reporting for FOX News, Kurt Knuttson highlights how MIT researchers have developed a new light-based scanner that can read blood sugar without a single prick. “A handheld or watch-sized glucose scanner would mark a major shift in diabetes care,” writes Knuttson. “MIT's work brings that future closer with a design that reads your chemistry through light.”

Researchers at MIT studying amblyopia – commonly known as lazy eye – have found that anesthetizing the retina could restore visual responses, reports Emma Frederickson for Popular Mechanics. “Their recent findings could reshape the way we think about vision loss,” writes Frederickson. 

Researchers at MIT have developed a device that can measure blood glucose levels through the skin. The team used “Raman spectroscopy to measure blood glucose because of the method’s ability to identify the chemical composition of samples noninvasively,” writes Sneha Khedkar for The Scientist. “The approach involves shining monochromatic light on samples and analyzing how the light scatters.” 

Researchers at MIT have developed a noninvasive, light-based blood-glucose monitoring system capable of replacing finger pricks and under-the-skin sensors used by patients with diabetes, reports Andrew Paul for Popular Science. The approach could “even fit on a device the size of a watch,” explains Paul. “Each measurement scan takes slightly more than 30 seconds to complete. The device also shows an accuracy comparable to two commercially available, wearable glucose monitors.” 

Researchers at MIT are using AI systems to design new molecules for potential antibiotics, research that is “aimed at the growing challenge of antibiotic-resistant infections,” reports Adele Peters for Fast Company. “The number of resistant bacterial pathogens has been growing, decade upon decade,” says Prof. James Collins. “And the number of new antibiotics being developed has been dropping, decade upon decade.” 

Prof. Bryan Bryson speaks with Chris Smith on The Naked Scientists podcast about his efforts to find targets for a new tuberculosis vaccine, as the current version, which is very effective in children, does not sufficiently protect adolescents and adults. “Right now, we only have one TB vaccine that's over 100 years old,” said Bryson.  “And for me as an engineer, if somebody tells you there's a 100 year old technology that doesn't work the way that you want it to, you want to say, let's build a better one.”