Ingestible Osmotic Pill for In-vivo Sampling of Gut Microbiome

Technologies capable of non-invasively sampling internal organs are potentially transformative. We present an ingestible, biocompatible, 3D-printed micro-engineered pill with integrated osmotic sampler and microfluidic channels for in vivo sampling of the gut lumen and its microbiome. An embedded magnet enables spatial sampling from a specific region of the gut. The pills sampling performance was characterized using realistic in vitro models and validated in vivo in a pig model. Our results show that the bacterial content of the pills closely resembles the microenvironment from which they were recovered. We believe such lab-on-a-pill devices will revolutionize our understanding of the role of the spatial diversity of gut microbiome to medical conditions.