Implantable Tumor Tracker Is a Tiny Lab That Lives Inside Your Body And Reports Back

Tuesday, March 15, 2011 - 15:31 in Biology & Nature

The Implantable Tumor-Tracker Courtesy Michael Cima/MIT Rather than bringing people into the lab, researchers at MIT are putting tiny labs into people via a tiny implantable capsule that can track the growth of a tumor or detect heart-deterioration or even silent heart attacks from inside the body. The miniature lab is small enough to implant via a needle during a normal biopsy, and can remain inside the body vigilantly watching for increased tumor growth. The inside of the device is filled with nanoparticles, each sporting an antibody specially designed to bind to specific molecules like those that are produced by certain kinds of tumors or by damaged heart muscle cells. A semi-permeable membrane keeps the nanoparticles in while allowing molecules from the body to pass through. Doctors can then check for clusters of particles with a simple MRI. Judging from the density of clusters of certain molecules, doctors can tell if a...

Read the whole article on PopSci

More from PopSci

Latest Science Newsletter

Get the latest and most popular science news articles of the week in your Inbox! It's free!

Check out our next project, Biology.Net