ANSC's Dr. Younggeon Jin co-PI on NIH-Funded Project
University of Maryland (UMD) researchers will continue to advance their “smart pill” that tracks gut health, with support from a National Institutes of Health (NIH) R21 grant. Distinguished University Professor Reza Ghodssi (ECE/ISR/Fischell Institute) is the Principal Investigator (PI) and Younggeon Jin (Animal & Avian Sciences), Justin Stine (MATRIX/ENGR), and Pankaj Pasricha (Mayo Clinic) are co-PIs.
The work, which began at the University of Maryland, College Park campus, will now extend to Southern Maryland, into the UMD MATRIX Lab.
“This will greatly expand the research scope of our ingestible capsule work. We are taking a systems approach to improving the reliability of ingestible sensors beyond what we previously thought was possible,” Dr. Ghodssi said. “Establishing trusted measurements is essential to unlocking the next generation of autonomous, closed-loop technologies for the GI tract. We thank the National Institutes of Health for supporting this life-changing work.”
Earlier, Less Invasive Detection
The pill will support those with Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, collectively known as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). IBD causes inflammation in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, but because inflammation is a common symptom of other disorders, diagnosis is complicated. Capsule endoscopy is minimally invasive tool that provides images of the GI tract to simplify diagnosis for patients but doesn’t provide health measurements and is only used reactively, after symptoms appear.
