By Ephraim Agbo
From bubbles in the blood to Bluetooth in the brain — meet the scientists turning science fiction into medical reality.
Imagine a world where:
- Paralysis is treated without a single cut to the skull.
- Drugs travel only to the exact cells that need them — and nowhere else.
- A simple pill can send gentle pulses to your brain from your stomach.
It sounds like tomorrow’s dream. But for three trailblazing innovators — Tom Oxley, Eleanor Stride, and Khalil Ramadi — it’s today’s work. Their inventions are already in human trials, quietly reshaping medicine as we know it.
Eleanor Stride — The Artist Who Fell in Love with Bubbles
Eleanor Stride’s journey to medical innovation began with… art. She studied painting before switching to engineering, which landed her an internship at British Maritime Technology — working on oil pipelines, not people.
Then fate intervened. A hospital radiology department came looking for physicists who understood ultrasound. That’s when she learned about tiny gas bubbles that could supercharge ultrasound imaging, reflecting sound waves far better than blood cells.
There was a catch: bubbles in the bloodstream can be deadly — something divers fear as “the bends.” Making them safe became her PhD challenge. Years later, Eleanor is still working with bubbles, but now she’s weaponising them against disease.
Khalil Ramadi — From Brain Surgery to the Body’s “Second Brain”
Khalil Ramadi began by miniaturising brain implants, shrinking them from chopstick-size to the width of a human hair. But two conversations changed everything:
Patients: “If you have to drill into my skull, I don’t want it.”
Neurosurgeons: “If we’re already opening the skull, size doesn’t matter.”
Khalil turned his attention to the gut — the body’s “second brain”. Packed with neurons, it can communicate with the brain and control key body functions. And most importantly, we’re used to swallowing pills.
That’s how he created a swallowable electric pill — a capsule that delivers painless bursts of electricity to gut neurons, which then signal the brain. Its design was inspired by the thorny devil lizard of Australia, whose skin channels water away from sensitive areas. In the pill’s case, grooves channel stomach fluid away from electrodes, preventing short-circuits.
Tom Oxley — Giving a Voice to the Locked-In
For Tom Oxley, it started with one patient — a man in his forties, just like him, who had suffered a brainstem stroke. He was fully aware but trapped in a body that couldn’t move or speak.
Tom knew brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) could help — but most required risky brain surgery. Many patients refused.
His solution? The Stentrode — a brain implant inserted through the jugular vein, snaked into a blood vessel near the motor cortex, and connected to a small chest device. It picks up brain signals, sends them wirelessly to a computer, and lets patients move a cursor or select words with their thoughts.
The Science in Action
Eleanor’s GPS-Targeted Medicine
Less than 1% of most drugs reach their intended target — the rest circulate, often causing toxic side effects.
Eleanor’s answer: microbubbles 1/50th the width of a human hair, coated in safe material, with drugs sealed inside. Ultrasound bursts them only at the right spot, releasing medicine exactly where it’s needed.
She’s even adding oxygen to fight tumours, making cancer cells more vulnerable in their low-oxygen environments.
Khalil’s Electric Pill
About the size of a large fish oil capsule, the “Flash” pill sends painless microbursts for 30 minutes, then leaves the body naturally. Potential uses include nausea, migraines, mood disorders, and even some neurological conditions — all without surgery.
Tom’s Brainwaves over Bluetooth
Once the Stentrode is implanted, patients “train” it by imagining movements, allowing the system to map their brain patterns. With just five mental commands — up, down, left, right, select — they can control devices.
In partnership with Apple, Tom’s team created a Bluetooth brain-control profile, allowing direct device navigation without extra software tricks.
Why This Matters
These aren’t just high-tech curiosities — they’re part of a shift in medicine from broad treatments to targeted precision.
Instead of flooding the whole body to fix one part, these approaches go straight to the source: a tumour cell, a gut neuron, or a motor cortex.
The most thrilling part? This isn’t a distant vision. Clinical trials are already happening.
The future of healing is bubbling in the blood, pulsing in the gut, and streaming brainwaves over Bluetooth — and it’s happening right now.
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