Patent ID: 7611480

Claim:
An in-vivo bioreactor device comprising: a swallowable, at least partly non-digestible housing having an external shell and defining at least one internal cavity, at least one membrane provided relative to the at least one internal cavity to selectively allow predetermined constituents of a fluid from the gastrointestinal tract to pass through said at least one membrane while other fluidic constituents of the fluid from the gastrointestinal tract do not pass through said at least one membrane; wherein said predetermined constituents from the gastrointestinal tract that have passed through the at least one membrane are retained in said internal cavity so as to selectively remove said predetermined constituents from the gastrointestinal tract upon introduction of the device into the gastrointestinal tract, wherein said shell has at least one inlet opening on one side of said at least one membrane and at least one exit opening on an opposite side of said at least one membrane that allow bodily fluids to respectively enter and exit the device while the device is in the body, said openings extending longitudinally on a periphery of said shell.