A Potential Anti-Bacterial Implant

“We can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to make the world’s first bionic man…We can make him better than he was. Better, stronger, faster.”

Classic science fiction aside, there has been a recent announcement by Tufts University regarding the world’s first wireless electronic implant to fight staph infections then automatically dissolve into the body when the job is finished. Working with a collection of talent from Tufts as well as the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, the research group has successfully shown an absorbable chip that eliminated a bacterial infection in mice by applying heat to infected areas after receiving a wireless signal via remote. The devices themselves are made from silk — where the antibiotics are loaded for dispersal — and magnesium, allowing them to be safely absorbed in testing animals after 15 days.

The large scale implications of such a chip in humans is grand, as professor of biomedical engineering at Tufts Fiorenzo Omenetto believes

“This is an important demonstration step forward for the development of  on-demand medical devices that can be turned on remotely to perform a therapeutic function in a patient and then safely disappear after their use, requiring no retrieval.”

Frank C. Doble, a professor at Tufts School of Engineering, believes this could drastically change the aftermath of surgical procedures in hospitals.

“These wireless strategies could help manage post-surgical infection, for example, or pave the way for eventual ‘wi-fi’ drug delivery.”

As per a study conducted by the Center for Disease Control in 2011, as many as 1 in 25 hospital patients were hit with a healthcare-associated infection, or HAI. The same study showed approximately 721,800 and HAIs were responsible for an estimated 75,000 deaths.

With something as simple as a patch the doctor places and remotely monitors, some of the guesswork in post-surgery complications can be removed. While there is no timetable for the implant to begin human trials, the hope would be to cut down on not only HAIs but also infections of any other type. The implant managed to handle staph infections as well as E. coli and S. aureus bacteria. There may come a day where rather than seeing the doctor about a prescription and then driving to the pharmacy, the doctor or nurse could apply something as simple as a patch and then send you on your way.

(Header image via NIAID)