Implantable biosensors and their contribution to the future of precision medicine

Abstract

Precision medicine can be defined as the prevention, investigation and treatment of diseases taking individual variability into account. There are multiple ways in which the field of precision medicine may be advanced; however, recent innovations in the fields of electronics and microfabrication techniques have led to an increased interest in the use of implantable biosensors in precision medicine. Implantable biosensors are an important class of biosensors because of their ability to provide continuous data on the levels of a target analyte; this enables trends and changes in analyte levels over time to be monitored without any need for intervention from either the patient or clinician. As such, implantable biosensors have great potential in the diagnosis, monitoring, management and treatment of a variety of disease conditions. In this review, we describe precision medicine and the role implantable biosensors may have in this field, along with challenges in their clinical implementation due to the host immune responses they elicit within the body.

Recent Advances in Enabling Technologies in 3D Printing for Precision Medicine

“…Advanced imaging techniques such as light sheet microscopy and methods of analysis such as enhanced machine‐learning algorithms provide pathways for nondestructive analysis of samples after fabrication . Other modes of integrated analysis include soft, biocompatible sensors that can be fabricated directly within implants or in vitro models . Continued efforts are needed for more reliable, nondestructive methods to analyze the quality and effectiveness of precision therapies during and after fabrication.…”

Bio‐Multifunctional Smart Wearable Sensors for Medical Devices

“…In addition to material biocompatibility, device design toward biodegradation is a challenging yet mandatory goal, particularly for implantable diagnostic applications. For flexible sensors used in clinical applications, their characteristics must be determined according to their biocompatibility, which should include biosafety (no cytotoxicity, mutagenesis, or carcinogenesis) and biofunctionality (biocompatibility, biodegradability, and self‐healing) . Unfortunately, implanted biosensors often lose their function over time, mainly due to foreign body reactions caused by biofouling around biosensors.…”

Titanium as an Instant Adhesive for Biological Soft Tissue

“…[ 47–49 ] As a microchip, injectable radio frequency identification (RFID) tag [ 50 ] has now widely helped to manage livestock, domesticated or laboratory animals and products in the food supply chain. Implantable biosensors have been developing to be used not only as a monitoring system of the biorhythms, [ 49 ] but also as a drug release system for the treatment of cancers or endocrine diseases including diabetes. [ 51 ] In the near future, these implantable devices are expected to be important tools for human electronic identification, internal body monitoring and also prevention or treatment of diseases.…”