This capsule of glowing E. coli will probe your gut for signs of trouble

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Whether you go in from above or below, probing the inner workings of our innards is a tricky task. Our intestines are an extensive, inaccessible tangle of tubes, full of dark tucks and turns. But with a new ingestible capsule, researchers hope to shed light on the depths of our perplexing plumbing-quite literally.

The capsule contains living bacteria engineered to sense specific molecular signs of gut troubles and, when those molecules are present, the bacteria glow. The illuminating biological sensors are paired with low-power microelectronics within the pill. This includes photodetectors, a microprocessor, and a wireless transmitter. In all, this ingestible micro-bio-electronic device, or IMBED, is designed to painlessly drift through our ductwork, probe for trouble, and relay findings wirelessly in real time as it takes its excursion through our entrails.

"Basically, our vision is that we want to try to illuminate and provide understanding into areas that are not easily accessible," Timothy Lu, a biological and electrical engineer at MIT, said in a press briefing. Lu and electrical engineer Anantha Chandrakasan (also at MIT) led a team of researchers developing the IMBED.

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