Nanoneedle-Studded Patch Could Eliminate Painful and Invasive Biopsies

Biopsies are among the most frequently performed diagnostic procedures globally, carried out millions of times each year to detect various diseases. Despite their importance, they are invasive, can lead to pain and complications, and often discourage patients from pursuing early diagnosis or follow-up testing. Conventional biopsies also involve removing small tissue samples, limiting the frequency and depth at which organs like the brain can be examined. In response to these limitations, researchers have now created a nanoneedle patch capable of painlessly gathering molecular information from tissues without extracting or damaging them. This innovation could enable real-time disease monitoring and allow for multiple, repeatable tests from the same site—an approach not feasible with traditional biopsy techniques.

Developed by a multidisciplinary team at King’s College London (KCL, London, UK), the patch features tens of millions of nanoneedles and may soon serve as an alternative to conventional biopsies. These nanoneedles are around 1,000 times thinner than a human hair and, since they don’t remove tissue, they do not cause pain or tissue damage. As a result, the process is significantly less discomforting for patients than standard biopsies. This advancement could lead to earlier detection and more consistent disease monitoring, potentially revolutionizing how conditions are diagnosed and treated. In preclinical trials, the team used the patch on brain cancer tissue sourced from human biopsies and mouse models. Findings published in Nature Nanotechnology revealed that the nanoneedles successfully gathered molecular "fingerprints"—including lipids, proteins, and mRNAs—from the cells without harming or extracting the tissue.

The molecular imprints obtained from the patch are analyzed through mass spectrometry and artificial intelligence (AI), offering medical teams comprehensive insights into tumor presence, treatment response, and disease progression at a cellular scale. This technique could also support real-time decision-making during brain surgery. For instance, by applying the patch to a questionable area, clinicians could obtain diagnostic results in about 20 minutes, enabling immediate decisions about whether to remove cancerous tissue. Manufactured using the same processes used to produce computer chips, these nanoneedles can be incorporated into widely used medical tools such as bandages, endoscopes, and contact lenses. This breakthrough was made possible through an extensive interdisciplinary collaboration across fields such as nanoengineering, clinical oncology, cell biology, and AI—each area contributing vital expertise that together paved the way for a new, non-invasive diagnostic approach.

“This approach provides multidimensional molecular information from different types of cells within the same tissue. Traditional biopsies simply cannot do that. And because the process does not destroy the tissue, we can sample the same tissue multiple times, which was previously impossible,” said Dr. Ciro Chiappini, who led the research. “This could be the beginning of the end for painful biopsies. Our technology opens up new ways to diagnose and monitor disease safely and painlessly – helping doctors and patients make better, faster decisions.”

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