Chronic wounds and severe burns are common, slow to heal, and costly to treat, yet clinicians mainly rely on infrequent visual inspection during dressing changes to assess healing.​ Existing skin substitutes and scaffolds (e.g., CEAs, synthetic matrices) support regeneration but are “blind” to cellular activity and cannot provide continuous, quantitative feedback on how well the tissue is recovering.​ Wearable or smart bandage sensors can track parameters like temperature or pH, but are usually separate devices on non‑degradable substrates, not integrated into regenerative scaffolds and often use materials with limited long‑term biocompatibility.

The technology

• An electrospun PCL scaffold functionalized with Fmoc‑FRGD peptide supports strong cell adhesion, proliferation, and full‑thickness skin repair
• Biocompatible Ti₃C₂Tₓ MXene is deposited as thin surface electrodes without blocking scaffold porosity or flexibility, forming a stable bioelectronic bilayer.​
• Electrical impedance spectroscopy across these electrodes provides continuous, non‑destructive readouts. The scaffold therefore acts simultaneously as a regenerative matrix and an embedded sensor for in situ, label‑free monitoring of cell dynamics.​

Figure 1. Fabrication and structural characterization of the bioelectronic scaffold. a) Schematic illustration of the bioelectronic scaffold designed to support cell adhesion and allow real-time, label free monitoring of cellular behavior via electrical impedance sensing. b,c) HR-SEM images showing tilted and top-view morphology of the bioelectronic scaffold. d–f) Elemental characterization of the scaffold using cross-sectional HR-SEM and EDS mapping. Secondary electron image. Elemental mapping of carbon (red). Elemental mapping of titanium (yellow). Scale bar = 10 μm.

Potential applications

• Smart wound dressings and engineered skin grafts that continuously report healing status and flag stalled healing or infection
• In vitro test platforms to screen regenerative biomaterials, cell therapies, or drugs by tracking real‑time cell behavior on candidate scaffolds without destructive assays.​
• Implantable or tissue‑integrated bioelectronic scaffolds for other tissues where long‑term monitoring of cell engraftment and matrix deposition is essential.

Reference:
Cohen‑Gerassi D, Loboda O, Jog A, et al. Real‑time, label‑free monitoring of cell behavior on a bioelectronic scaffold. Adv Funct Mater. 2025;35:e23540