By monitoring blood levels from under the skin, the silk microchip could eliminate the need for time consuming traditional blood tests.
Credit: iStockphoto
SYDNEY: A silk microchip has been developed that can be implanted beneath a patient’s skin and cheaply monitor their blood in real time.
A team led by Peter Domachuk, a physicist from the University of Sydney, created the microchip using silk fibres that can measure the levels of chemicals in the blood stream – without waiting for samples to come back from the lab.
“Silk combines a number of properties not found in any other material. It is tough, transparent and can contain other materials like electronics. It can be mixed with proteins, enzymes and other biomolecules,” said Domachuk.
No immune response
The team has already embedded haemoglobin into the silk microchips to monitor blood oxygen levels and plan to add additional proteins to test for a wide range of chemicals.
Silk is a unique candidate for implantable chips as it doesn’t trigger an immune response when it comes in contact with the tissue, according to Domachuk who – so far – has spent three years developing the microchip.
This means it can sit in or under the skin without causing scarring or inflammation and will allow vital signs to be measured quickly, without blood having to be taken.
Instant results
“I’m hoping that, eventually, test results will be available in seconds to minutes. This will make the process quicker, cheaper and more effective. Potentially it could be used in hospitals, GP clinics and one day even in the home,” Domachuk said.
The microchip will be mainly for blood tests but other bodily fluids like salvia and urine could potentially be analysed as well.
The natural fibres of the silk are roughly composed of two proteins: fibroin for strength and sericin for elasticity. The scientists isolate and purify the fibroin and use that in the microchip, that vary in size: the largest being 15 centimetres across, the smallest is under 1 millimetre.
Domachuck said he is hoping to have a prototype ready in four years and believes that the production cost of a chip would be much less than a dollar per unit.
Revolutionising healthcare
Tanya Monro, a physicist and the director of the Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing (IPAS) at the University of Adelaide, believes nanoscale optical fibres are well suited as a platform for interacting with biological materials and for sensing with the human body.
“While silk is not a commonly recognised optical material, it does make sense that it can be used in this way. Its natural biocompatibility is certainly attractive for implantable devices,” Monro said.
Silk fibre is just one way of creating new sensing technologies, but if the technologies come in use in the future, which is highly likely, it will change the healthcare system as we know it, Monro explained:
“Technologies that can offer real-time diagnostics of key biological and chemical markers of disease will revolutionise human healthcare by allowing doctors to make decisions about healthcare on the fly.”
