Thursday, March 26, 2020

A wearable, freestanding electrochemical sensing system

MARCH 26, 2020 FEATURE, by Thamarasee Jeewandara , Phys.org
https://phys.org/news/2020-03-wearable-freestanding-electrochemical.html

FESS design rationale, implementation, and application. (A) Schematic of the biomarker information delivery pathway enabled by the FESS, illustrating sampling, sensing, and routing of epidermally retrieved biomarker information to readout electronics through a single entity. (B) Design rationale of the FESS. (C) Representative implementation of the FESS, demonstrating flexibility and no in-plane interconnection. (D) Representative family of FESS devices, containing 1 × 2, 3 × 3, and 6 × 6 electrode arrays. (E) Custom-developed and FESS-enabled smartwatch for biomarker monitoring. (F and G) Deployment of the FESS-enabled smartwatch in stationary (F) and high-intensity exercise (G) settings.
 (Photo credit: Peterson Nguyen, Kaili Chiu, Yichao Zhao, University of California, Los Angeles.) 
Credit: Science Advances, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aaz0007

In a new study published on Science Advances, Yichao Zhao and a research team in integrated bioelectronics and materials and engineering in the U.S. engineered a disposable, free-standing electrochemical sensing system (FESS). The FESS allowed them to realize a system-level design strategy to address the challenges of wearable biosensors in the presence of motion and allow seamless integration with consumer electronics. The team developed a FESS-enabled smartwatch, featuring sweat sampling, electrochemical sensing and data display or transmission, within a self-contained wearable platform. The team used the FESS-smartwatch to monitor the profiles of sweat metabolites among individuals in sedentary and high-intensive exercise settings.

The internet-of-things (IOT) infrastructure can be used in wearable consumer electronics to transform personalized and precision medicine by harvesting physiologically relevant data with minimal user intervention. Scientists have typically used physical sensors in commercial wearable platforms to track a user's physical activity and vital signs. However, to gain insight into the body's dynamic chemistry, researchers require electrochemical sensing surfaces to target the biomarker molecules within non-invasively retrieved body fluids such as sweat. To accomplish this, it is critical to precisely engineer the information delivery pathway from the skin to a readout unit. For electrochemical sensing, the information delivery pathway must sample and deliver the biomarker-rich biofluid to the sensor surface in a microfluidic structure, followed by signal transduction through interconnected elements to the readout electronics. The signal must be maintained along this pathway in the presence of motion-induced strain.



Bio-inspired in situ sensing and signal interconnection. (A) Conceptual illustration of the physiological information exchange between intracellular/extracellular matrices facilitated by cell adhesive molecules (integrin) via sensing, out-of-plane signal interconnection, and double-sided adhesion. (B) In-situ sensing, out-of-plane signal interconnection, and double-sided adhesion enabled by FESS, as a single entity, placed between skin and electronics. Credit: Science Advances, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aaz0007


In this work, Zhao et al. developed the freestanding electrochemical sensing system (FESS) and simultaneously adhered it to the skin and to electronics using double-sided adhesion forces without rigid connectors. The FESS sampled and directed epidermally retrieved biofluids for electrochemical sensing, followed by routing to readout electronics through a strain-isolated pathway. They integrated the FESS inside a custom-built smartwatch for sweat induction, sampling, .....


Recommend this post and follow Sputniks Orbit

No comments:

Post a Comment