Gold nanowire array on a rat brain. Credit: Kam Sang Kwok and Soo Jin Choi, Gracias Lab/Johns Hopkins University.
Key points:
- Engineers have developed nanoscale tattoos that can adhere to live cells.
- In experiments, the tTattoo structures stuck to soft fibroblast cells for 16 hours, even as cells moved.
- “Nanoscale tattoos” mark the a first successful step toward attaching sensors and electronics to track individual cell health.
Providing early warnings for health problems is key for improving health outcomes. Engineers have developed breakthrough technology called nanoscale tattoos, an array of dots and wires that adhere to cells, that bring tracking the health of individual cells one step closer to reality. Engineers at Johns Hopkins University have developed “nanoscale tattoos,” dots and wires that can adhere to and track the health of individual live cells.
A major obstacle to tracking bioinformation is getting biosensor technology to adhere to cells while remaining flexible enough to conform to the fluid outer structure. Cells need to be able to live and move with the sensors attached. The new nanoscale tattoo technology, detailed in Nano Letters, met this challenge as it was able to stick on cells for 16 hours, even as they moved.
Building the tattoos in a biocompatible and cost-effective process was crucial to the technology’s success. Researchers built the nanoarrays with gold, which prevents signal loss or distortion in electric wiring. They treated this gold array with molecular glues that can bond to the extracellular matrix, and then transferred the array onto fibroblast cells using a flexible and degradable hydrogel film to achieve contact with live cells.
“We’ve shown we can attach complex nanopatterns to living cells, while ensuring that the cell doesn’t die,” said study author David Gracia, a professor at Johns Hopkins University. “It’s a very important result that the cells can live and move with the tattoos because there’s often a significant incompatibility between living cells and the methods engineers use to fabricate electronics.”
David Gracias, a professor at Johns Hopkins University who helped develop the technology, explained the promise of the nanoscale tattoos. “If we had technologies to track the health of isolated cells, we could maybe diagnose and treat diseases much earlier and not wait until the entire organ is damaged.”
Gracias and his team plan to continue their efforts by attaching more complex nanocircuits that can stay in place for longer periods, and as well as by experimenting with different cell types. These are major steps toward a future where sensors can remotely monitor and control individual cell health in real time.
“If we had technologies to track the health of isolated cells, we could maybe diagnose and treat diseases much earlier and not wait until the entire organ is damaged,” said Gracias.