Drug delivery microchips

In science fiction, characters inhabiting a world of the future sometimes have microchip implants that control or monitor their actions or dispense mood-altering chemicals upon demand. While the application still may be far off, the technology for such chips is here, as published in Nature last week by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

MIT researchers produced a microfabricated silicon microchip that can deliver single or multiple chemical substances on demand. Chemical release is controlled by the electrochemical dissolution of thin anode membranes covering reservoirs of solid, liquid or gel-based chemicals. The chip is the first to contain chemicals for release within the chip itself and to release those chemicals on demand without any moving parts, the researchers said...