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Sensor100
February 2016
Company Profile:
Profusa Inc.
Profusa Unveils First Biointegrated Sensors for Long-term
Continuous Monitoring of Body Chemistry
At the Consumer Elec-
tronics Show in January,
South San Francisco based
Profusa showed off an
upcoming injectable sensor
that can be used to con-
tinuously monitor oxygen
levels in tissue. Measuring
only 3-5 millimeters long
and a tiny 500 microns in
diameter, the biosensor
can be injected into tissue
with just a hypodermic needle. It consists of a soft hydrogel scaffold that
allows it to be biologically compatible with the surrounding tissue with-
out any foreign body response.The sensor also contains a special chemical
marker that changes fluorescence depending on the amount of oxygen that
reacts with it. An optical reader placed on the skin measures the fluores-
cence and relays the data to a smartphone.The biosensor can last as long
as two years (at which point the chemical marker begins to lose its poten-
cy), and because it contains no electronics and is completely biocompatible
there’s no need to remove it.
[Over...]