Publication date: 15th December 2025
Gastrointestinal fluids contain valuable biomarkers for disease diagnosis; yet current methods to access them rely on rigid devices made of potentially toxic materials and require specialized clinical settings, posing risks to both users and the environment.
We introduce an edible biosensor capable of quantifying metabolites and enzyme activity in gastric fluid, designed to be safely ingested and partially metabolized, eliminating the need for hospitalization or disposal. All materials used are fully safe for ingestion, including food additives (ethyl cellulose as substrate, gold and silver electrodes), a toothpaste pigment (copper phthalocyanine) as the semiconductor, chitosan as the electrolyte, and naturally occurring biorecognition elements (caffeic acid and horseradish peroxidase).
The biosensor is demonstrated for H₂O₂ detection, a reactive oxygen species associated with gastrointestinal inflammation, using a controlled redox reaction between caffeic acid and HRP. Following spectrophotometric and electrochemical validation, the system is integrated into an edible extended-gate electrolyte-gated field-effect transistor. In vitro testing shows H₂O₂ detection across 0–3 mM, with a limit of detection of ~144 µM and sensitivity of 2.7 µC mM⁻¹, using only 500 µL of sample and a 4-minute test time. Minimal modifications of the biorecognition elements enable detection of additional metabolites, such as glucose and cholesterol, as well as gastric peroxide enzyme activity. The biosensor was validated under simulated physiological conditions, accounting for variations in temperature, pH, and potential interfering agents.
This work represents a step toward safe, in vivo biosensing in the gastrointestinal tract that is fully edible and accessible at the point of care.
V.F.A. acknowledges funding from the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions (project name: EDISENS, Grant Agreement # 101105418) under the European Union’s Horizon Europe scheme.
nanoGe is a prestigious brand of successful science conferences that are developed along the year in different areas of the world since 2009. Our worldwide conferences cover cutting-edge materials topics like perovskite solar cells, photovoltaics, optoelectronics, solar fuel conversion, surface science, catalysis and two-dimensional materials, among many others.
Previously nanoGe Spring Meeting (NSM) and nanoGe Fall Meeting (NFM), MATSUS is a multiple symposia conference focused on a broad set of topics of advanced materials preparation, their fundamental properties, and their applications, in fields such as renewable energy, photovoltaics, lighting, semiconductor quantum dots, 2-D materials synthesis, charge carriers dynamics, microscopy and spectroscopy semiconductors fundamentals, etc.
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics (HOPV) is celebrated yearly in May. The main topics are the development, function and modeling of materials and devices for hybrid and organic solar cells. The field is now dominated by perovskite solar cells but also other hybrid technologies, as organic solar cells, quantum dot solar cells, and dye-sensitized solar cells and their integration into devices for photoelectrochemical solar fuel production.
Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics
The main topics of the Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics (IPEROP) are discussed every year in Asia-Pacific for gathering the recent advances in the fields of material preparation, modeling and fabrication of perovskite and hybrid and organic materials. Photovoltaic devices are analyzed from fundamental physics and materials properties to a broad set of applications. The conference also covers the developments of perovskite optoelectronics, including light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.
The International Conference on Perovskite Thin Film Photovoltaics Perovskite Photonics and Optoelectronics (NIPHO) is the best place to hear the latest developments in perovskite solar cells as well as on recent advances in the fields of perovskite light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.