(Invited) Skin-Interfaced Wearable Sweat Biosensors

Abstract

The rising research interest in personalized medicine promises to revolutionize traditional medical practices. This presents a tremendous opportunity for developing wearable devices toward predictive analytics and treatment. In this talk, I will introduce our efforts in developing wearable biosensors for non-invasive molecular analysis. Such wearables can autonomously access body fluids (e.g., human sweat) across the activities and continuously measure a broad spectrum of analytes including metabolites, nutrients, hormones, proteins, and drugs. I will highlight our recent works in the design of wearable and wireless devices for the real-time electrochemical detection of picomolar-level proteins (i.e., inflammatory biomarker C-reactive) and hormones (i.e., estradiol) in sweat. Laser engraving, inkjet printing, and direct-ink-writing 3D printing are used to manufacture high-performance nanomaterials-based biosensors at large scale and low cost. The clinical value of our wearable systems is evaluated through various human trials toward precision nutrition, stress/mental health assessment, chronic disease management, and drug personalization. I will also discuss our research progress on energy harvesting from the human body and the environment to realize battery-free wireless wearable sensing. These wearable technologies could open the door to a wide range of personalized monitoring, diagnostic, and therapeutic applications.