Researchers from the Spanish National Scientific Research Council (CSIC) have achieved making silicon chips that are smaller than human cells, encapsulate them chemically and then insert them into live cells.

This process allows the vast majority of the cells to remain alive after a week, which permits using the chips as intracellular biochemical sensors. They have also shown that the shape of the chips can be nanostructured. The study has important implications in the field of nanomedicine.

Jaume Esteve and José Antonio Plaza, directors of the project, explain that “in the near future, these chips will permit the characterization and quantification of real-time intracellular mechanisms in vivo, at the single cell level”. The study of cells is of great importance for medicine, because many biological processes take place inside them and cells differ from one to another. These chips could someday incorporate mechanical, optical or electronic components, permitting unprecedented studies and procedures in the fields of cellular biology and nanomedicine.

The new chips are made of silicon and manufactured using microelectronic techniques. Researchers from three bodies of the CSIC have participated in the project: the Barcelona Institute of Microelectronics, the Center for Biological Research and the Barcelona Institute for Chemical and Environmental Research.