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A team of MIT engineers
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has designed an ingestible, expanding pill
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that can monitor the stomach for up to a month,
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potentially tracking cancers, ulcers
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and other GI conditions.
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Soft and squishy, it's made from two types of hydrogels,
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the combination of which enables the pill to quickly swell
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while remaining impervious
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to the stomach's acidic environment.
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If the patient needs to remove the pill,
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they can simply drink a solution of calcium ions
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containing more calcium than whole milk
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that triggers the pill to quickly shrink back
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to its original size and pass safely out of the body.
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This hydrogel based design is softer, more bio-compatible
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and longer lasting than current ingestible sensors,
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typically made of hard plastics or metals
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which are quite stiff in comparison
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to the gastrointestinal tract.
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The inner material of the design
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are super absorbent hydrogel particles
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that are used in commercial products such as diapers
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for their ability to soak up liquid quickly.
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The second protective hydrogel layer was designed
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to encapsulate the fast swelling particles.
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The outer membrane is made from a multitude
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of nanoscopic crystalline chains, each folded over another
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in a nearly impenetrable gridlock pattern.
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To test the inflatability of the design,
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researchers dumped the material in various solutions
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of water and fluid resembling gastric juices.
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They found the pill inflated
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up to a hundred times its original size in about 15 minutes,
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much faster than existing expandable hydrogels.
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To test the pill's toughness,
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the researchers mechanically squeezed it thousands of times
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at forces greater than the pill would ever experience
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for regular contractions in the stomach.
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They found the design is both soft like tofu or jello
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but extremely robust.
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Finally, to show their ability
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to track environmental changes in the stomach,
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the researchers embedded
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within their design a small commercial temperature sensor
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which allows them to accurately
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and remotely track activity patterns within the body
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for up to 30 days.
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Down the road, the researchers envision the pill
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may safely deliver a number of different sensors
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to the stomach to monitor for instance pH levels
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or signs of certain bacteria or viruses.
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Tiny cameras may also be able to be embedded into the design
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to image the progress of tumors or ulcers over time.