Implantable chip emits disease alert signal

Swiss medical experts said a few days ago that they have developed a microchip that can be implanted under human skin tissue. The chip can monitor the health of the human body at any time and is expected to be available within 4 years.

The researchers called the chip a "micro-blood laboratory," which is only 14 mm long. Although it is small in size, it is fully functional. It contains 5 sensors, a radio transmission device and a power exchange system. It informs the doctor with a mobile phone signal after changes in human health.

According to reports, the reason why the device can monitor the health of human body is because the surface of each sensor is covered with an enzyme that can monitor different substances in the human body, such as changes in milk, glucose or adenosine triphosphate. "We can monitor every element, but the enzymes are life-limited, and we want to increase their use time as much as possible," said Giovanni Mikkeli, a participating scientist.

At present, the monitoring function of the sensor surface enzymes can generally maintain half a month's time, and some can even maintain a month, which is enough for the study of many diseases. Because of the small size of the device, its implantation and replacement are also very simple.

A team of researchers at the Federal Institute for Polytechnics in Lausanne, Switzerland, said that this small device is very helpful to patients who are in the period of chemotherapy, and it can also alert patients to heart attacks several hours in advance by monitoring the relevant elements in the blood.

In addition, for some patients with chronic diseases, its role is also very large, because it can send out relevant early warning signals before the human body develops an illness. “The system has great potential for work. As long as the pathology of the human body changes, it can It is monitored and it consumes very little energy," Mikkeli said.

The researchers said that they hope to complete all the research and development of this blood laboratory within 4 years and be able to market it.