Although molecular communication systems have been shown to bear great potential for many useful in-body applications, they require the intervention, action, or input of an out-of-body actor. From an Internet of Bio-Nano Things perspective, a successful overall network aims to bring together the two links belonging to the in-body and out-of-body networks for end-to-end communications. For most applications, the uplink from the in-body sensor is more significant since it provides the multi-scalar connection required to relay the information sensed and carried by the molecular communication system to a macro-scale smart terminal. This article proposes two different mechanisms to sense the output of the molecular communication system and transmit the information to an on-body reader. Each mechanism involves different genetically engineered bacteria and specific antenna designs. An experimental setup is provided to demonstrate each proposed concept. The results constitute a proof of concept to detect the in-body bacterial activity from the on-body reader.

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Microfluidics is an innovative technological platform with a vast potential to streamline processes in biology, chemistry, and biomedical fields. Microfluidic integrated biosensors attract much attention due to extreme miniaturization, low sample consumption, and increased homogeneity in mixing conditions, leading to enhanced sensitivity. Nowadays, many researchers focus on inexpensive and flexible laser production of polymer-based microfluidic devices for sensing applications due to their ease of production and rapid processing benefits. In this article, we present some key factors for the simple and rapid production of microfluidic components of the microwave sensor by using the CO2 laser ablation technique. The technique does not require any cleanroom or complex laboratory setups and provides short fabrication times for prototyping. It is observed that, at high laser power (30 W) and low scan speed (125 cm s−1), both the channel depth and the surface roughness increase greatly as opposed to channel waviness. It is also demonstrated that heat treatment is a viable method to reduce the channel roughness with a trade of channel depth. In the second section, prepared channels are bonded onto the split ring resonators (SRRs) fabricated using polymethyl methacrylate as a substrate. Power reflection measurements from SRR are performed using a continuous flow system that injects 100 mM glucose solutions into the channels. Change of dielectric constant due to glucose loading generates a meaningful resonance frequency shift, showing a possible use scenario of the device as a biosensor.

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