Supporting living electronics for next-generation medicines

Supporting living electronics for next-generation medicines Medicine is entering a new era in which therapies may not simply be synthesized, stored, injected and metabolized. Instead, future treatments could be living systems that sense disease, respond to patient needs and produce therapeutic molecules inside the body. This idea is sometimes described as a ‘living pharmacy’: engineered cells that act as miniature drug factories, producing biologics where and when they are needed. Biologic drugs have transformed cancer, autoimmune disease, diabetes and rare disorders, but they can be expensive to manufacture, difficult to distribute and burdensome for patients. Biohybrid systems could transform healthcare, but durable living electronics need oxygen, regulation and convergence research. Jonathan Rivnay tells us more.