Transcript Engineer slides - Mason Institute

Diagnosis, Delivery and
Direction
Implants Using New
Technologies
Alan Murray
Professor of Neural
Electronics
Agenda

Diagnosis
• Sensors on chip and the engineering
issues they raise

Delivery (drug)
• Drug storage and release structures and
the engineering issues they raise

Direction
• Cell guidance
Alan Murray – University of Edinburgh
Devices and diagnosis:
Shapes and Sizes?
Human hair
1µm = 10-6 (1/1000000th) of 1 metre
Or 1 million µm = 1metre
Roughly 10,000 hairsbreadths/metre
70-100 µm
Human neuron
4-100 µm
Transistor
0.1-1µm
Alan Murray – University of Edinburgh
Diagnosis - Sensors

From earlier work
on an ingestible
chip
• Temperature

easy
• Conductivity

fairly easy
• pH

tricky
• O2 concentration

trickier
Most interesting for tumour biology!
Alan Murray – University of Edinburgh
Implantable Microsystems for
Personalised Anti-Cancer Therapy
(IMPACT)
Chip  tumour microenvironment
Measure hypoxia (O2concentration)
and other markers of tumour activity
Typical microchip
Radiotherapy planning
Chemotherapy planning?
Chemotherapy delivery?
Alan Murray – University of Edinburgh
IMPACT (EPSRC Proposal, £5.3M)
Implantable Microsystems for Personalised
Anti-Cancer Therapy (IMPACT)
Interview, EPSRC Towers, 22nd Feb (JL)
Professor Alan Murray -School of Engineering
Professor Mark Bradley - School of Chemistry
Professor Steve McLaughlin – Engineering, Heriot-Watt
Professor Ian Kunkler - Edinburgh Cancer Research Centre
Professor David Argyle - Veterinary Clinical Studies
Professor Joyce Tait - Innogen Centre - Science,
Technology and Innovation Studies
5 years in the making
Alan Murray – University of Edinburgh
Look – no wires …
Alan Murray – University of Edinburgh
Devices and diagnosis:
Drug delivery

So far … chips can be:
• tiny
• wireless

Chips can contain
• Sensors

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O2, pH, conductivity, temperature
biomarkers
Chips can also store and release
liquid
Alan Murray – University of Edinburgh
Direction:
Cell guidance
Neurones, glia … also stem cells, kidney cells …
Alan Murray – University of Edinburgh
Potential benefits



Personalised therapy
Treatment at home
Optimised timing/location of therapy
• Chemotherapy released local to tumour


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Maximise tumour damage
Minimise collateral/systemic damage
Rebuild broken nervous system
components
Alan Murray – University of Edinburgh
Future trends

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More, better, smaller sensors
More and better algorithms for
making sense of sensors
Better security
Flexible substrates
Alan Murray – University of Edinburgh
Some Issues

Insertion
• Stereotactic is possible … long thin chips

Bio-fouling
• Body’s reaction to foreign objects

Wireless communications
• Radio/ultrasound

Signals from sensors/to drug-delivery
• “noisy” and not 100% accurate


Security
Need to deliver therapy at the tumour’s
(in)convenience, not on a regular schedule
Alan Murray – University of Edinburgh
But these are only the scientist’s
concerns …

We NEED a wider view
• Hence the inclusion of social scientists
and potential patients in the IMPACT
proposal
• Hence my being here today
Alan Murray – University of Edinburgh