New developments in sensor, battery and signal processing technologies have pushed this technology even further and led to the development of ‘smart-pills’ that wirelessly transmit biometric data and I’ve personally used smart pill temperature sensors in research on temperature regulation in Formula One drivers and was impressed by thei reliability and ease of use. These ingestible sensors, which can also include cameras, patches, and trackers, enable the non-invasive gathering of internal body images and physiological parameters such as pH, pressure, and core temperature, as well as monitoring electrolytes, enzymes, metabolites, hormones, and microbial communities throughout the gut. The field of smart pills is still in its early stages, yet ingestible sensors have the potential to vastly expand our understanding of the gut and revolutionise clinical diagnostics and monitoring to include sampling, biopsies, tissue penetration, targeted drug delivery and personalised diets. This is predicted to expand the smart pill technology market from $3.2 billion in 2020 to $7.5 billion by 2030.

In addition to data from wearable and ingestible biosensors, individual biohackers can now access modern laboratories and have their blood, urine, faeces, hair, sweat, saliva, skin and sperm analysed, and explore their nutritional status, toxic load, microbial diversity and genetics. Modern diagnostic imaging extends this even further by making information from CT scans, MRIs and ultrasound accessible to those who can afford it.

We are entering a brave new world of medical data and doctors are no longer the sole gatekeepers of medical information and biotechnology research is no longer limited to esteemed universities, Big Pharma or well-funded biotech companies. Home hobbyists and citizen-scientists now have more information at their disposal than the most sophisticated and well-funded laboratories and research institutes only a decade or so earlier. In addition, many laboratories and hospitals now give consumers direct access to the results of their tests results, and this empowers consumers to take control of their own health and demand even more information. Access to powerful collaboration tools and sharing platforms that integrate with the blockchain, cloud computing and AI further amplify this power and allow biohackers to conduct experiments on themselves and analyse, compare, and share their data along with their protocols, equipment designs and experiences.