New Sensors and Devices for the Advancement of Medicine

Imagine there was a way to detect Alzheimer's disease in its earliest stages. Or that a device the size of a pill could identify patients with irritable bowel syndrome in real-time.

These developments may sound like the medicine of the future, but in fact, they're happening now, through U.S. National Science Foundation funding in engineering. Across the nation, researchers in fields such as electrical, biomedical, chemical and materials engineering are developing new biomedical sensors and techniques.  

"Researchers funded by NSF are making significant advances in technology that can help doctors diagnose and treat patients with injuries, infections and diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer's disease," says Gretchen Mahler, a director of the NSF Engineering of Biomedical Systems program, which has supported a range of developments.

Researchers at Rice University are working on new ways of detecting light signals emitted by molecules in diseases such as Alzheimer's.

Among these novel techniques is a way of detecting light signals emitted by molecules in diseases such as Alzheimer's. The discovery was made by Shengxi Huang, an electrical and computer engineer at Rice University, whose research uses machine learning to detect light in illnesses. Huang and colleagues published their results in the journal ACS Nano in April 2025.

The device demonstration photo is an image of a soft, bioresorbable device designed to monitor and treat heart disease, and safely dissolve within the body once its function is complete.

Microvascular Imaging and Cardiac Monitoring

In a related effort, Pengfei Song and other researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign are using a technique called LOcalization with Context Awareness-Ultrasound Localization Microscopy (LOCA-ULM) as a diagnostic tool in microvascular imaging. In LOCA-ULM, microbubbles allow for blood flow speed-tracking and create images of blood vessels. The technique employs a model that creates realistic microbubble signals, resulting in better imaging and processing speed, ultimately allowing for noninvasive microvascular imaging.

New sensors are also in development for cardiac surgery. Complications such as heart block may happen, and current temporary cardiac monitoring and treatment approaches are limited, researchers say. A soft, fully bioresorbable transient electronic device may soon fill this gap by enabling high-resolution mapping of heart electrical activity and delivering targeted electrical stimulation. The findings were published in Science Advances in July 2023 by Luyao Lu and colleagues at George Washington University.

New, sensitive nanobiosensor arrays are enabling the detection of biomarkers important in health monitoring.

Innovations in Medical Sensors

Turning to the brain, traumatic brain injuries affect millions of Americans every year, with many survivors unfortunately living with impairments. A major reason for brain tissue deterioration is an enzyme called calpain that breaks down proteins. Limited tools exist, however, to measure the activity of this enzyme. Now, Ester Kwon of UC San Diego and colleagues have created a new way of sensing and inhibiting calpain activity in injured brain tissue. With the new tool, researchers can observe calpain activity as well as the loss of cells in the brain's injured cortex. The team published the results in the journal ACS Nano in September 2024.

In other sensors for medicine, immune system therapies are attracting keen interest in the treatment of diseases such as cancer and viral infections. That has spurred new needs for immune monitoring and diagnostic tools. With a limited window for therapeutic intervention in these illnesses, real-time detection of cytokines - proteins that help regulate the immune system and inflammation - is critical to obtaining the best patient outcomes, according to health experts. With U.S. National Science Foundation support, Pengyu Chen of Alabama's Auburn University and colleagues developed an immunosensor that can simultaneously analyze multiple cytokines quickly and accurately, a major advance, the researchers say, in disease diagnostics. The results were published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces in October 2023.

Among the range of new NSF-supported developments is an ingestible device that can help identify irritable bowel syndrome. The instrument can move through the small intestine and wirelessly report changes in the intestine's tissues, report Reza Ghodssi and colleagues at the University of Maryland, College Park, in the journal Microsystems & Nanoengineering in February 2025.

The Future of Biomedical Sensors

What does the future hold? For answers, biomedical engineers believe, look to quantum sensing. Quantum sensors may have capabilities beyond current limitations, researchers have found.

To date, there has been a gap between quantum sensing research and the clinical applications of biomedical technologies. Limited opportunities have existed to foster collaborations among researchers in science and engineering and frontline clinicians. NSF support for research on quantum sensors for biomedical science may soon offer new answers, taking us steps beyond today's developments in Alzheimer's disease and traumatic brain injury, microvascular imaging, cancer, viral infections and a host of other diseases.

About the Author

NSF staff science writer