Diagnosing disorders such as sleep apnea usually requires a night in a sleep lab, hooked up to sensors and monitors. Researchers hope to ease that process with an ingestible capsule that can monitor vital signs from within a patient’s GI tract. Image: MIT News

The new sensor measures heart and breathing rate from patients with sleep apnea and could also be used to monitor people at risk of opioid overdose.

Ingestible electronic device detects breathing depression in patients

MIT engineers designed an implantable device that carries hundreds of thousands of islet cells along with its own on-board oxygen factory to keep the cells healthy. Image: Felice Frankel

The device contains encapsulated cells that produce insulin, plus a tiny oxygen-producing factory that keeps the cells healthy.

An implantable device could enable injection-free control of diabetes

MIT researchers have developed a wearable patch that applies painless ultrasonic waves to the skin, creating tiny channels that drugs can pass through. Image: Courtesy of the researchers

Using ultrasonic waves that propel drug molecules into the skin, the patch could be used to treat a variety of skin conditions.

Wearable patch can painlessly deliver drugs through the skin

MIT engineers have shown that they can use magnetic fields to track the location of this ingestible sensor within the GI tract. Image: Courtesy of the researchers

The sensor sends out its location as it moves through the GI tract, revealing where slowdowns in digestion may occur.

Ingestible sensor could help doctors pinpoint GI difficulties

A small, bead-like magnet used in a new approach to measuring muscle position. Image: Courtesy of the researchers

Anne Trafton

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Ingestible electronic device detects breathing depression in patients

An implantable device could enable injection-free control of diabetes

Wearable patch can painlessly deliver drugs through the skin

Ingestible sensor could help doctors pinpoint GI difficulties

Magnetic sensors track muscle length

Engineers boost signals from fluorescent sensors