Shrinking transistors and nanotechnology will allow implantation of MEMS devices inside living cells.
A typical human cell is about 10 square micrometers which means that hundreds of today's smallest transistors could fit inside a single cell.
Experiments at the Instituto de Microelectrónica de Barcelona concluded that silicon-based top-down fabricated intracellular chips can be internalized by living eukaryotic cells without interfering with cell viability, and functionalized chips could be used as intracellular sensors since they can interact with the cell cytoplasm.
In the near future, novel intracellular chips will permit the characterization and quantification at the single cell level, and the in vivo real-time monitoring of cellular events, as well as specific targeting to the sites of action or efficient drug delivery within target cells.
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