Skin-Interfaced Wearable Biosensors

Wei Gao*

*Andrew and Peggy Cherng Department of Medical Engineering, Division of Engineering and Applied Science, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA (weigao@caltech.edu)

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 [1,2] 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 [3–6]. Laser engraving, inkjet printing, and 3D printing are used to manufacture high-performance nanomaterials-based biosensors at large scale and low cost [6–8]. The clinical value of our wearable systems is evaluated through various human trials toward precision nutrition, stress/mental health assessment, chronic disease management, fertility monitoring, and drug personalization [3–6]. I will also discuss our research progress on energy harvesting from the human body and the environment to realize battery-free wireless wearable sensing [9,10]. These wearable technologies could open the door to a wide range of personalized monitoring, diagnostic, and therapeutic applications.

References

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[2] Sempionatto, J. R. et al. Wearable Chemical Sensors for Biomarker Discovery in the Omics Era. Nat. Rev. Chem. Vol. 6, pp. 899–915, 2022.

[3] Wang, M. et al. A Wearable Electrochemical Biosensor for the Monitoring of Metabolites and Nutrients. Nat. Biomed. Eng. Vol. 6, pp. 1225–1235, 2022.

[4] Tu, J. et al. A Wireless Patch for the Monitoring of C-Reactive Protein in Sweat. Nat. Biomed. Eng. Vol. 7, pp. 1293–1306, 2023.

[5] Ye, C. et al. A Wearable Aptamer Nanobiosensor for Non-Invasive Female Hormone Monitoring. Nat. Nanotech. 10.1038/s41565-023-01513-0, 2023.

[6] Yang, Y. et al. A Laser-Engraved Wearable Sensor for Sensitive Detection of Uric Acid and Tyrosine in Sweat. Nat. Biotech. Vol. 38, pp. 217–224, 2020.

[7] Yu, Y. et al. All-Printed Soft Human-Machine Interface for Robotic Physicochemical Sensing. Sci. Robot. Vol. 7, eabn0495, 2022.

[8] Song, Y. et al. 3D-Printed Epifluidic Electronic Skin for Machine Learning–Powered Multimodal Health Surveillance. Sci. Adv. Vol. 9, eadi6492, 2023.

[9] Yu, Y. et al. Biofuel-Powered Soft Electronic Skin with Multiplexed and Wireless Sensing for Human-Machine Interfaces. Sci. Robot. Vol. 5, eaaz7946, 2020.

[10] Min, J. et al. An Autonomous Wearable Biosensor Powered by a Perovskite Solar Cell. Nat. Electron. Vol. 6, 630–641, 2023.