Body Art Gets Smart
Whether we are simply too busy to make it a priority or lack affordable access, there are a multitude of reasons why preventative healthcare too often takes a back seat. In the absence of preventative care, underlying illnesses can fester, and windows of opportunity for disease screening and early diagnosis lapse. What if, however, predictive disease indicators could be reliably monitored without visiting a physician? Inroads toward this end are under active investigation and could even change the way we think about body art. Interest has been growing among pockets of biomedical engineers in the development of so-called biomedical tattoos. Such tattoos utilize various strategies to report in real-time health metrics with disease value. While some strategies are somewhat more invasive and involve injected biosensors, others involve thinly printed devices that adhere to the skin, resembling temporary tattoos. Synthetic biology applications using engineered cells represent an exciting avenue of exploration taking advantage of the diversity of signals to which cells have evolved to sense and respond. A recent study from Martin Fussenegger and