Sampling device for drug development and diagnosis of gastric-intestinal diseases

An ingestible electronic device for collecting samples along a gastric-intestinal tract, the ingestible electronic device comprising:

• a housing;
• a cap connected to the housing and comprising a surface defining a sampling port;
• a rotatable shaft disposed within the housing;
• a motor connected to the rotatable shaft within the housing and configured to axially rotate the rotatable shaft;
• one or more mechanically deformable sample collection chambers within the housing and configured to collect the gastric-intestinal samples, wherein each sample collection chamber of the one or more sample collection chambers includes a first end, a second end, and sidewalls connecting the first end and the second end, such that the first end is configured for exposure to the gastric-intestinal tract for sample collection, portions of the side walls are mechanically deformable, and the second end and sidewalls are covered by an impervious polymer;
• a microcontroller configured to control the motor and rotatable shaft so as to selectively align the sampling port of the cap with at least one of the sample collection chambers, thereby exposing the at least one sample collection chamber to the gastric-intestinal tract for collection of one or more gastric-intestinal fluid samples;
• and
• two or more batteries residing in the housing and configured to provide two disparate power sources, one each for the microcontroller and the motor.