Biohybrid Devices: Healthcare's Latest Game-changerBiohybrid Devices: Healthcare's Latest Game-changer

Biohybrid devices, blending living cells with electronic systems, offer groundbreaking possibilities in fields like medicine and robotics, though technical, regulatory, and ethical obstacles hinder widespread adoption.

Keir Hart, Founder

January 22, 2025

4 Min Read

At a Glance

  • Biohybrid devices combine biology and electronics, revolutionizing medicine and prosthetics.
  • Advances in conductive polymers and lab-grown cells enable seamless biological-electronic integration.
  • Challenges in manufacturing, power, and regulation must be overcome for widespread use.

Imagine just thinking about where you want to go, and your car drives you there. Or having your annual physical, simply by having your doctor scan your gut with an RFID reader. You have probably never heard the term biohybrid device, but I’ll bet that you have likely seen pictures or videos of one. Biohybrid devices are systems that combine living and non-living components to achieve enhanced functionality, biocompatibility, or adaptability. Basically, cyborgs. Well, sort of. The idea of a biohybrid device has been around as long as science fiction, but actual products are far newer. Biohybrid prosthetics, gaming devices, and solar cells are emerging off the comic book pages and onto the world stage. These devices are at the leading edge of biology and engineering, offering unprecedented capabilities for repairing, replacing, or enhancing human function, among other things.

Technological Foundations

Interfacing between biological materials and electronics requires special materials and microelectronics to succeed. Conductive polymers, like polypyrrole (PPy) and PEDOT are currently used for creating some of these interfaces. Polypyrrole is a solid, electrically conductive organic polymer used in a wide array of applications from fuel cells to computer displays to drug delivery systems. Likewise, PEDOT has found wide applications already. Originally used as anti-static coatings on photographic films, this flexible, transparent material works well as a conductor. When combined with polystyrene sulfonate (PSS), the material becomes very stable and soluble, making it ideal for optics and electronic devices. These are just two possibilities. Others currently exist and new options are being developed every day. 

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Meanwhile, lab-grown cells and tissues have shown the ability to grow into and interface with electronics for better integration.  Furthermore, by mimicking the intracellular matrix with specialized hydrogels, further integration improvements have been made. Combining these biomaterials with miniaturized circuits, or micro/nanoelectronics, allows translating some biological signals directly into “machine” language, allowing a user to move a motor with their mind.  Device companies, like Neuralink, are taking it a step further and developing an interface where the possibilities are endless.  They are not alone.

Disruptive Applications

Real-world applications in and outside medicine abound, particularly in cardiology, neurology, and prosthetics. Biohybrid pacemakers that combine biological tissues with electronic circuits could create self-powering, adaptive pacemakers that integrate directly with your circulatory system. Special scaffolds infused with cardiac cells could repair your heart after a myocardial infarction. Combined with electrodes that integrate with your nervous system, these types of devices could help control prosthetics or treat neurological conditions like epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, and more. 

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One very exciting potential application of biohybrid devices is sensory restoration through biomimicry of sensory systems like touch and vision. Augmenting current haptics systems could allow surgeons to feel the wetness of tissue in a robotics case. Vision could be restored after an accident or augmented to see different spectrums of light. 

In addition, biohybrid sensors could detect specific biomarkers for early disease diagnosis, such as cancer. Your physician’s office could simply scan your sensor every time you walk through the door to get your vital signs or be alerted if something abnormal in your gut is detected while you are at the shopping mall. 

Barriers to Adoption

There are several technical and regulatory hurdles currently limiting widespread use of many biohybrid devices. Manufacturing complexity, longevity, and power requirements must be overcome to make the future now. Precise integration of biological and electronic components is not easy. Processes need to be developed that allow for this integration on a mass production scale and an affordable price point. Biological materials within a device tend to break down quickly, greatly limiting the length of time a biohybrid device could be used. Designs that protect and sustain biological materials must be developed before we can see the vast potential of biohybrid devices. Lastly, providing power to the microelectronics buried inside biological materials is no easy feat. Developing a self-sustaining energy system, such as biofuel cells or utilizing the body’s ATP system could suffice. However, these systems do not currently exist in a form widely available for production. 

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Regulatory and ethical concerns abound as well. Combining biological and synthetic elements introduces ambiguity in regulatory pathways to put it mildly. Regulations around the world will need to catch up before these devices will see the light of day. New standards to evaluate the safety, efficacy, and biocompatibility of biohybrid devices are needed. Issues around the integration of human tissues with devices, and implications for possible body autonomy are murky and will require legislation, debate, and careful enforcement. 

Future Opportunities

Advances in bioprinting and automated assembly may make biohybrid devices affordable and widely available. Smart biohybrid devices capable of real-time monitoring, adaptive functionality, and/or remote control open new frontiers in medicine, particularly diagnostics and regenerative medicine, and technology. To realize the full potential of these devices, collaborative research must be conducted. Partnerships between academia, startups, and medical device companies will only serve to accelerate these innovations. 

Conclusion

Biohybrid devices are set to disrupt the medical device and technological landscape via solutions that are adaptable and integrated into not only our society, but our biology. Collaborative efforts to improve regulation, develop innovative approaches, and solve ethical dilemmas are needed to unlock the full potential of biohybrid devices.

About the Author

Keir Hart

Founder, Flying Pig Designs

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