Towards an Implantable Fluorescence Image Sensor for Real-Time Monitoring of Immune Response in Cancer Therapy
Rozhan Rabbani, Hossein Najafiaghdam, Mohammad Meraj Ghanbari, Efthymios P. Papageorgiou, Biqi Rebekah Zhao, Micah Roschelle, Vladimir Stojanović, Rikky Muller, Mekhail Anwar
Abstract
Real-time monitoring of cellular-level changes inside the body provides key information regarding disease progression and therapy assessment for critical care including cancer therapy. Current state-of-the-art oncological imaging methods impose unnecessary latencies to detect small cell foci. Invasive methods such as biopsies, on the other hand, cause disruption if deployed on a repeated basis. Therefore, they are not practical for real-time assessments of the tumor tissue. This work presents a proof-of-concept design for an implantable fluorescence lensless image sensor to address the pervasive challenge of real-time tracking of the immune response in immunotherapy. The 2.4x4.7 mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> integrated circuit (IC) prototype consists of a 36 by 40 pixel array, a laser driver and a power management unit harvesting power and transferring 11.5 kbits/frame through a wireless ultrasound link while implanted 2 cm deep inside the body. Compared to prior art, this is the first full-fledged wireless system implementing chip-scale fluorescence microscopy to the best of our knowledge.Clinical relevance— This prototype can be used to personalize immunotherapy for the 50% of cancer patients who do not initially respond to the therapy.