Understanding brain-gut communication requires continuous, in vivo sensing of gut neurotransmitters — something that’s been out of reach until now. After four years of work, we’re excited to share a wireless ingestible platform for in vivo sensing of gut neurotransmitters: a 5.8 mm × 19 mm pill that integrates a printed three-electrode electrochemical sensor with a custom ASIC supporting both amperometry and voltammetry, consuming just 42 μA for continuous, low-power operation inside the body. Congratulations to Angsagan Abdigazy and the team: Mohammad Shafiqul Islam, Sandra Lara Galindo, Md Farhad Hassan, Xiang Zhang, Wooseong Choi, Mark McHugh, Sudipta Saha, Prof. Hossein Hashemi, and Prof. Dong Song. 💊🧠✨

Paper title: Single-chip End-to-End Ingestible Electronics for Gut Neurotransmitter Sensing

Publication:

  1. Single-chip End-to-End Ingestible Electronics for Gut Neurotransmitter Sensing Angsagan Abdigazy, Mohammad Shafiqul Islam, Sandra Lara Galindo, Md Farhad Hassan, Xiang Zhang, Wooseong Choi, Mark McHugh, Sudipta Saha, Hossein Hashemi, Dong Song, and others bioRxiv, 2026 Preprint

    Neurotransmitters in the gut play a vital role in human health and neuroscience, and their real-time monitoring is essential for understanding underlying physiological mechanisms. However, bioelectronic systems capable of measuring neurotransmitters in vivo at the anatomical site of interest remain underdeveloped and largely depend on bulky, off-the-shelf electronic components, thereby constraining the development of systems that are both practical and minimally invasive. Here, we report a miniature ingestible pill that is capable of real-time in vivo sensing of two key neurotransmitters: serotonin (5-HT) and dopamine (DA). The system incorporates a fully printed three-electrode-based electrochemical sensor for neurotransmitter sensing and a custom application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) that integrates all major functional blocks on a single chip, enabling a platform for fully wireless monitoring of gut neurotransmitters. The pill, measuring 5.8 mm in diameter and 19 mm in length, supports multiple electrochemical sensing techniques, including amperometry and voltammetry, with only 42 uA of average current consumption. We demonstrate the ingestible platform through in vivo studies in rat animal models, enabling real-time monitoring of gut neurotransmitters.

    @article{abdigazy2026single, title = {Single-chip End-to-End Ingestible Electronics for Gut Neurotransmitter Sensing}, author = {Abdigazy, Angsagan and Islam, Mohammad Shafiqul and Galindo, Sandra Lara and Hassan, Md Farhad and Zhang, Xiang and Choi, Wooseong and McHugh, Mark and Saha, Sudipta and Hashemi, Hossein and Song, Dong and others}, journal = {bioRxiv}, note = {Preprint}, year = {2026}, publisher = {Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory}, doi = {10.64898/2026.03.28.715054}, thumbnail = {abdigazy2026single.jpg}, url = {https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.03.28.715054}, pdf = {abdigazy2026single.pdf} }

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