Bruno Gil

Imperial College London | Imperial · Department of Bioengineering

Surgical approaches for tumour resection aim to minimise the sacrifice of healthy tissue while ensuring complete removal of the tumours to avoid recurrence. This is particularly challenging in minimally invasive surgery (MIS). Miniaturized and precise robotic instruments that can manipulate diagnostic or therapeutic tools allow superior access and...

Precise manipulation of flexible surgical tools is crucial in minimally invasive surgical procedures, necessitating a miniature and flexible robotic probe that can precisely direct the surgical instruments. In this work, we developed a polymer-based robotic fiber with a thermal actuation mechanism by local heating along the sides of a single fiber....

Exhaled human breath contains a mixture of gases including nitrogen , oxygen, carbon dioxide, water vapour and low molecular weight volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Different VOCs detected in human breath condensate have been recently related to several metabolic processes occurring inside body tissues in the pathological state, as candidate biom...

Monitoring of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in body fluids (blood, urine, sweat and saliva) or exhaled breath is a recent trend in medical research with the potential to unveil information about internal body processes or metabolic pathways dysregulated due to bacterial infection, tissue cancer, inflammation, and injury. Typically, these low-we...

Cancer is one of the leading causes of high mortality worldwide, affecting most of the body organs including the breast and colon. Triple-negative breast (TNBC) and colorectal cancers (CRC) usually present the poorest clinical outcomes and lowest disease-free survival rates among the different cancer types. Novel biomarkers for early detection of T...

The appropriate orientation of antibodies on the graphene surface is critical for the high performance of graphene biosensors. In this paper, we show that a predominantly vertical orientation of antibodies to the graphene surface can be achieved by functionalizing the surface with tetrakis (4-carboxyphenyl) porphyrin (TCPP). We used this method to...

Biosensors based on graphene field effect transistors (GFETs) have the potential to enable the development of point-of-care diagnostic tools for early stage disease detection. However, issues with reproducibility and manufacturing yields of graphene sensors, but also with Debye screening and unwanted detection of nonspecific species, have prevented...

Technologies that rely on the fundamental principle of thermal expansion have demonstrated high-precision, a growing demand in fields driven by miniaturization. However, scalable production of high aspect ratio devices that harness this capability while facilitating flexibility in design and functionality remains a challenge. We employed the high-t...

Recent technological advances in micro-robotics have demonstrated their immense potential for biomedical applications. Emerging micro-robots have versatile sensing systems, flexible locomotion and dexterous manipulation capabilities that can significantly contribute to the healthcare system. Despite the appreciated and tangible benefits of medical...

For biomarker sensing applications, in the solution and gas phases, functionalized graphene field-effect transistors (gFET) have been employed as sensors for selective detection of biomarkers due to graphene’s high sensitivity towards immobilized molecules. However, a drawback of this approach is potentially poor sensor repeatability and/or shelf l...

Graphene field-effect transistor (GFET) biosensors exhibit high sensitivity due to a large surface-to-volume ratio and the high sensitivity of the Fermi level to the presence of charged biomolecules near the surface. For most reported GFET biosensors, bulky external reference electrodes are used which prevent their full-scale chip integration and c...

Totally implanted access ports (TIAP) are widely used with oncology patients requiring long term central venous access for the delivery of chemotherapeutic agents, infusions, transfusions, blood sample collection and parenteral nutrition. Such devices offer a significant improvement to the quality of life for patients and reduced complication rates...

In medical applications, graphene field-effect transistors (GFETs) have been employed as sensors for the detection of biological biomarkers and other compounds due to graphene's high sensitivity towards immobilized molecules at its surface. Commonly, the resistivity of a graphene channel is measured under direct drain-source current (DC) and gate v...

Accurate, reliable, and cost-effective immunosensors are clinically important for the early diagnosis and monitoring of the progressive diseases, and multiplexed sensing is a promising strategy for the next generation of diagnostics. This strategy allows for the simultaneous detection and quantification of multiple biomarkers with significantly enh...

Urinary bladder volume monitoring can benefit from contactless measurements, as alternative to the traditional medical methods of transurethral catheterization or ultrasound examination. The emerging modality of Magnetic Induction Tomography (MIT) offers the possibility for estimation of the intravesical volume in the physiological and pathological...

In medical sensing applications, functionalized graphene field-effect transistors (gFET) have been employed as sensors for detecting biomarkers owing to graphene’s high sensitivity towards immobilized molecule. Commonly, the resistivity of a graphene channel is measured under direct current (DC) mode (I-V), or under a gate sweep (I-Vg). However, li...

Implantable devices represent the future of remote medical monitoring and administration of both chemical and physical therapies to the patients. Although some of these devices are already in the market, the security mechanisms deployed inside them to withstand deliberate external influence are still decades away from the robust digital data securi...

Implantable Devices Bruno Miguel Gil Rosa, Salzitsa Anastasova, and Guang-Zhong Yang demonstrate in article number 2100053 an implantation of a cardiovascular monitoring device inside rodents powered by a mobile phone, with physiological signal visualization directly on the app. This is exemplified in the cover highlight by the yellow – electrocard...

Medical imaging modalities are vast and include the well-established techniques of Computerized Tomography (CT), Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) or Ultrasounds. Though the underlying physics differs amongst modalities, a similar Inverse Mapping is shared: the recovery of the internal physical property under analysis from measurements obtained at t...

Monitoring of intrabody cardiovascular parameters can benefit from implantation of miniature devices close to anatomical targets, thereby surpassing signal attenuation problems related to the propagation toward body surface while allowing localized sensing at the target site with higher precision. With proper electronic miniaturization, packaging,...

Ultrasounds (US) are one of the most used imaging techniques in medicine for assessing the physiological and pathological state of soft tissue. Apart from therapeutic applications, most of the interaction of the acoustic beams with tissues occur passively and without substantial modification to the physiology of the latter. However, US can also be...

Ultrasounds (US) are one of the most used imaging and sensing modalities in the medical field. Apart from therapeutic applications, most interactions between the acoustic waves and tissue occur passively without any substantial modification to the physiology of the later. However, US can also be used to power actively implanted devices with the sam...

Real-time monitoring of intrabody pressures can benefit from the use of miniaturized force sensors during surgical interventions or for the recovery period thereafter. Herein, we present a force sensor made of P(VDF-TrFE) with simple fabrication process that has been integrated into the tip of a medical catheter for intraluminal pressure monitoring...

A novel method for measuring the volume of the urinary bladder non-invasively is here presented that relies in the principles dictated by Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT). The electronic prototype responsible for injecting innocuous electrical currents to the lower abdominal region and measuring the developed voltage levels is fully described,...

Recent developments in wearable electronics have fueled research into new materials, sensors, and microelectronic technologies for the realization of devices that have increased functionality and performance. This is further enhanced by advances in fabr ication methods and printing techniques, stimulating research on implantables and the advancemen...

Wearable and implantable devices ideally should require low levels of maintenance and be able to operate continuously throughout the intended device lifetime with minimal disruption and human interference [1]. The need for additional surgical procedures to address the energy needs of implanted devices (eg, replace batteries) can be detrimental in t...

The pervasiveness of electronic devices into everyday life has become a reality. Advancements in microfabrication and material science are daily translated into devices with a direct positive impact on the livelihood of individuals and entire societies. This is further accelerated by advances in information technologies. Objects used daily are beco...

Accurate detection of blood biomarkers related to neurodegenerative diseases could provide a shortcut to identifying early stage patients before the onset of symptoms. The specificity, selectivity and operational requirements of the current technologies, however, preclude their use in the primary clinical setting for early detection. Graphene, an e...

Infection by the parasite of malaria is a serious healthcare problem for populations residing primarily in tropical and subtropical countries. Early detection of the disease is essential to reduce both the mortality rate and spreading of the disease in the infected areas. Current methods for malaria diagnosis still rely on microscopic analysis of b...

Ultrasounds (US) has been used in the past decades as a non-invasive imaging modality. Although employed extensively in clinical applications for soft tissue imaging, the acoustic beams can also be used for sensing and actuation for biological implants. In this paper we present a unified three dimensional (3D) computational framework to simulate th...

Cardiac-related diseases are still the number one cause of death worldwide. Methods and technologies to suppress this problem are currently being investigated by integrating electrocardiographic (ECG) monitoring with other sensing modalities in order to detect these diseases more accurately and in due course of time. In this paper, we propose a bat...

Excessive stress is one of the main causes of mental illness. Long-term exposure of stress could affect one's physiological wellbeing (such as hypertension) and psychological condition (such as depression). Multisensory information such as heart rate variability (HRV) and pH can provide suitable information about mental and physical stress. This pa...

When flexible electronic materials are combined with micro 3D printing fabrication, it presents new applications for medical wearable biosensors and devices. This paper introduces a novel carbon nanotube-coated force sensor, successfully combining the advantages of flexible conductive nanomaterials and the versatility of two photon polymerization t...

Mental illnesses are vast and cause a lot of individual and social discomfort, with significant healthcare costs associated in terms of diagnosis and treatment. They can be triggered by a number of factors including stress, fatigue or anxiety. The associated physiological, cardiac and autonomic changes can be assessed, centrally, through brain imag...

Wearable biomedical technology has gained much support lately as devices have become more affordable to the general public and they can easily interact with mobile phones and other platforms. The feasibility and accuracy of the data generated by these devices so as to replace the standard medical methods in use today is still under scrutiny. In thi...

Flexible endomicroscopes commonly use coherent fiber bundles with high core densities to facilitate high-resolution in vivo imaging during endoscopic and minimally-invasive procedures. However, under-sampling due to the inter-core spacing limits the spatial resolution, making it difficult to resolve smaller cellular features. Here, we report a comp...

For data exchange of implantable devices, wireless links are unavoidable except for the case when an indwelling catheter or probe is allowed to establish either a direct or close contact with the implantable sensor. Light transmission via optical fibers can offer a solution to accomplish data exchange. However, without a conductive path to the outs...

For Implantable Medical Devices (IMD), we have discussed in the previous chapters the technical challenges related to biocompatible materials, flexible fabrication processes, system-on-chip design, low-power operation, and packaging. Increasingly advanced computing capabilities found in IMDs and networking technologies can further broaden the appli...

In sport, exercise and healthcare settings, there is a need for continuous, non-invasive monitoring of biomarkers to assess human performance, health and wellbeing. Here we report the development of a flexible microfluidic platform with fully integrated sensing for on-body testing of human sweat. The system can simultaneously and selectively measur...

A linear image reconstruction algorithm for solving the Magnetic Induction Tomography inverse problem is presented. It's an optimization process to determine a reconstruction matrix that does the best mapping between a set of training parameter vectors and their respective measurements dictated by a forward model. It allows the simultaneous 3D reco...

In this paper, the first experimental results for a multi-projection differential coil Magnetic Induction Tomography system are presented. All current systems are static, allowing only the acquisition of a small number of fixed projections. The presented setup provides a much higher density of projection measurements which reduces the ill-posedness...