Project description
The future of edible electronic sensors
From cardiac pacemakers to retinal implants, implantable medical electronic devices have been around for decades. Scientists today are developing tiny implantable and ingestible electronic devices that can be consumed orally for diagnosis and treatment of diseases. The EU-funded ELFO project is taking the next step. It’s designing new enabling technology for disruptive edible electronic systems: imperceptible circuits and sensors that can perform a function and then be degraded within the body, either digested or even metabolised. With applications in advanced biomedical devices for continuous monitoring of the health status within the gastro-intestinal (GI) tract (bleeding in the GI tract is a dangerous and impactful condition that can benefit from early detection), it will also provide electronic tags for food monitoring, serving public health. The goal is to gain more information about what we eat and how it is assimilated, as well as enabling mass health screening thanks to biomedical devices that can be self-administered, i.e. swallowed, without supervision.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
ERC-COG - Consolidator Grant
Host institution
16163 Genova
Italy
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Beneficiaries (1)
16163 Genova
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