Researchers Develop Oxygen-Powered Cell Implant to Boost Drug Delivery

The HOBIT device uses an integrated electrocatalytic oxygenator to sustain high-density cell clusters and enable continuous drug production.

Mar. 28, 2026 at 2:58am

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Researchers have developed a new implantable device called HOBIT that uses an integrated electrocatalytic oxygenator to provide a steady supply of oxygen to high-density clusters of engineered cells, enabling them to continuously produce multiple therapeutic biologics over an extended period. The compact, wireless device was successfully tested in rats, maintaining high cell viability and sustained drug levels compared to control implants.

Why it matters

Implanting living cells as long-term drug producers could revolutionize treatment for many diseases, but keeping the cells alive and productive at clinically relevant scales has been a major challenge. The HOBIT device addresses key obstacles around oxygenation, cell density, and immune protection, paving the way for more sophisticated cell-based therapies.

The details

The HOBIT device incorporates a miniaturized electrocatalytic oxygenator that uses electricity from an onboard battery to split water and generate oxygen directly where the cells are housed. This allows for much higher cell densities - roughly six times higher than conventional approaches - in a compact, implantable package. The device also features a two-stage encapsulation system to protect the cells from the host immune system. In animal tests, the oxygenated HOBIT implants maintained high cell viability and sustained production of three different therapeutic biologics over 30 days, outperforming control devices without the oxygen supply.

  • The research was published on March 27, 2026.
  • The team implanted the devices in rats for a 30-day evaluation period.

The players

Chris Wright

A Rice University Ph.D. student and first author on the study.

Tzahi Cohen-Karni

A professor of materials science engineering and biomedical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University.

Jonathan Rivnay

The Jerome B. Cohen Professor in Engineering at Northwestern University.

Omid Veiseh

A professor of bioengineering at Rice University, a Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas Scholar, and director of the Rice Biotech Launch Pad.

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What they’re saying

“Our collaborative efforts are highly unique, a combination of energy research, with bioengineering - toward efficiently providing oxygen to the cell factories.”

— Tzahi Cohen-Karni, Professor of materials science engineering and biomedical engineering, Carnegie Mellon University

“We are producing oxygen directly where the cells need it. That allows us to support much higher cell densities in a much smaller space: Cell densities in HOBIT were roughly six times higher than conventional unoxygenated encapsulation approaches.”

— Jonathan Rivnay, The Jerome B. Cohen Professor in Engineering, Northwestern University

“The results are very encouraging -- HOBIT brings us significantly closer to clinically viable platform. If you can compact cells and keep them alive, you open the door to more sophisticated therapies -- multiple cell types, regulated secretion, integration with sensing electronics -- all within a retrievable device.”

— Omid Veiseh, Professor of bioengineering, Rice University

What’s next

The team plans to pursue larger-animal studies and disease-specific applications, including for diabetes, where transplanted pancreatic islets have high yet variable oxygen demands.

The takeaway

This breakthrough HOBIT device represents a significant step forward in making implantable cell-based therapies a clinical reality, by solving key challenges around oxygenation, cell density, and immune protection in a compact, wireless package. If successful in further testing, it could pave the way for more sophisticated, personalized cell-based treatments for a wide range of diseases.