Addressable transmitters operated as magnetic spins,’ mimic MRI use through integrated sensors, resonators, and wireless transmitters

Orange County, CA - October 31st 2017 -  Researchers at The California Institute of Technology have developed a prototype of a miniature medical device that could eventually be used in "smart pills" to diagnose and treat diseases. This technology is unique for the microscale medical market due to the chip’s ability to deliver its coordinates within a patient’s body.

"The dream is that we will have microscale devices that are roaming our bodies and either diagnosing problems or fixing things," says Azita Emami, co-leader of research and Professor of Electrical Engineering at the Andrew and Peggy Cherng medical engineering department at Caltech, along with Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering and Heritage Medical Research Institute Investigator Mikhail Shapiro. "Before now, one of the challenges was that it was hard to tell where they are in the body."

The team’s research was published in the September issue of the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering. The ATOMS technology, short for ‘addressable transmitters operated as magnetic spins,’ is similar to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) due to its use of magnetic fields. However, rather than depending on the body's atoms, the chips contain a set of integrated sensors, resonators, and wireless transmitters to mimic their resonance imaging properties.

Addressable transmitters operated as magnetic spins,’ mimic MRI use through integrated sensors, resonators, and wireless transmitters

Although still in the trial stages, the team says the devices could eventually serve as miniature internal robotic doctors; they can monitor a patient's gastrointestinal tract, blood, or brain. Being able to quantify health factors like pH, temperature, and sugar concentrations, this information can be relayed to professionals and optimize doctor visits. Programmed to handle all bodily needs, the devices could even be instructed to release drugs. "You could have dozens of microscale devices traveling around the body taking measurements or intervening in disease. These devices can all be identical, but the ATOMS devices would allow you to know where they all are and talk to all of them at once," says Shapiro.

Lead author Manuel Monge explained what sets the ATOMS apart from others in its field. "This chip is totally unique. There are no other chips that operate on these principles," said Monge. "Integrating all of the components together in a very small device, while keeping the power low, was a big task." Monge conducted his research as part of his PhD thesis which won the Charles Wilts Prize by Caltech's Department of Electrical Engineering.

The chip’s prototype has a surface area of 1.4 square millimeters- 250 times smaller than a penny. Armed with a magnetic field sensor, a wireless powering device, integrated antennas, and a circuit to adjust radio frequency signal dependent on the magnetic field strength, the chip can wirelessly communicate its location. Currently mice have proven to be successful test subjects, the next step will be human trials in hopes of readying the device for mainstream consumption.

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Addressable transmitters operated as magnetic spins,’ mimic MRI use through integrated sensors, resonators, and wireless transmitters Orange County, CA – October 31st 2017 –  Researchers at The California Institute of Technology have developed a prototype of a miniature medical device that could eventually be used in “smart pills” to diagnose and treat diseases. This technology is unique […]