Metamaterials

Metamaterials are materials that are engineered to manipulate waves in ways different from natural materials; they are deliberately designed with certain chemical and molecular properties that enable their functionalities. One example of these functionalities is bending waves outwards, which is in  the opposite direction most objects bend waves in. This allows scientists and engineers to create materials that bend light around the molecules in the object, making the light enter the same way it came in. Metamaterials can be used for most waves: thermal, sound, and electromagnetic waves can all be affected.

Metamaterials can be used in a variety of ways in both healthcare and biotech, such as through drug delivery and implantable devices. These devices can be ingested or implanted and are controlled magnetically as well as being able to guide therapeutic waves to the site that needs them. This helps immensely, especially if the waves are harmful to other parts of the body because they don’t hit those spots and avoid them. Other specialized metamaterials expand radially when triggered, which can open up clogged blood vessels and help prevent heart attacks.

Metamaterials can also sense different biological proteins, molecules and viruses. Using Terahertz Detection, results are achieved label-free and non-destructively. By tweaking and modifying electric fields, sensors can catch shifts in the refractive index of blood samples, which shifts the waves a bit to help flag cancer or hemoglobin abnormalities. 

Despite being man-made, metamaterials can also mimic biological environments; mechanical bio-metamaterials can provide cell culture scaffolds that match physical stiffness of real human tissues such as bone and heart muscle. Others convert movements and stress into electric signals that promote faster bone growth and tissue regeneration. 

They can also track health and fitness as external devices due to their ability to sense waves. Patches that conform comfortably to the body track vital signs, physical movement, and natural hearing can possibly be restored through elastic metamaterials modeled after the human cochlea.

References:

Metamaterial | Properties, Applications & Uses | Britannica, www.britannica.com/topic/metamaterial. Accessed 11 Aug. 2026.

“Rice Researchers Create Novel Metamaterial That Can Potentially Revolutionize Implantable, Ingestible Devices.” Rice News | News and Media Relations | Rice University, news.rice.edu/news/2025/rice-researchers-create-novel-metamaterial-can-potentially-revolutionize-implantable. Accessed 10 Aug. 2026.

The Theory, Technology, and Application of Terahertz Metamaterial Biosensors: A Review - Sciencedirect, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667325824004606. Accessed 11 Aug. 2026.

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