Recent advances in engineering science have led to new classes of medical devices with emergent mechanical, electrical, and thermal properties that offer new opportunities for interfacing with living cells. I will discuss conceptual advances in microfabrication, device physics, power transfer and microscale transport phenomena that enable novel biosensors and cell delivery systems, with an emphasis on two recent examples from my work: (i) Soft, skin-interfacing wearable flow sensors for novel neurosurgical diagnostics; (ii) Battery-free bioelectronic systems for “living drug factories” that combine inorganic device elements with living cells for long-term, functional cures for a range of diseases with an emphasis on oxygenation strategies and immune-isolation. I will illustrate the utility of the latter platform with examples of specific cell and disease models. Finally, I will present a vision for how these types of technologies could lead to both fundamental scientific discoveries and next generation bioelectronic cell therapy platforms for the treatment and sensing of chronic disease.