(MIT News) Just like we have wearable devices for our body, can we also have wearables for cells inside our body?

MIT researchers have developed wearable devices that may be able to perform similar functions for individual cells inside the body.

These battery-free, subcellular-sized devices, made of a soft polymer, are designed to gently wrap around different parts of neurons, such as axons and dendrites, without damaging the cells, upon wireless actuation with light. By snugly wrapping neuronal processes, they could be used to measure or modulate a neuron’s electrical and metabolic activity at a subcellular level.

Because these devices are wireless and free-floating, the researchers envision that thousands of tiny devices could someday be injected and then actuated noninvasively using light. Researchers would precisely control how the wearables gently wrap around cells, by manipulating the dose of light shined from outside the body, which would penetrate the tissue and actuate the devices.

By enfolding axons that transmit electrical impulses between neurons and to other parts of the body, these wearables could help restore some neuronal degradation that occurs in diseases like multiple sclerosis. In the long run, the devices could be integrated with other materials to create tiny circuits that could measure and modulate individual cells.

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In @CommsChem, Media Lab Prof. @DeblinaSarkar59 and researchers from @NCB_MIT and @MITChemE introduce wearable devices for cells. Made of a soft polymer and actuated with light, these battery-free, subcellular-sized devices can gently wrap around different parts of neurons. They… pic.twitter.com/VksMKlMFL7

— MIT Media Lab (@medialab) October 31, 2024