Metabolic diseases are on the rise, with roughly 40% of Americans being obese and 10% diabetic. Treating these chronic diseases currently requires daily injections, surgery, or expensive drugs. Recent innovations, such as continuous glucose monitoring and insulin pumps, have greatly lowered the burden on patients but can still be painful to use and can limit activity.  

The MIT team aims to revolutionize these treatments by developing two orally delivered pill-sized devices. The first device will sense its location in the gastrointestinal tract and then inject mRNA into the tract lining that provides long term treatment for diabetes or obesity. The second device will temporarily reside in the GI tract, electrically stimulating it to release hormones associated with hunger and satiety. The devices will be remotely controlled and wirelessly powered for enhanced efficacy and safety.  

Although the proof-of-concept effort focuses on metabolic diseases, the designs could be applied to deliver therapies for many clinical conditions. Critically, this innovative delivery of therapies could provide treatment access to socioeconomically disadvantaged classes, who are most affected by metabolic diseases. The self-administration of capsule-sized devices could also reduce healthcare worker involvement, the need for hospitalizations, and healthcare costs associated with the need to store, stabilize, and medications.