There is a strong demand for non-invasive, continuous and prolonged monitoring of biomarkers that indicate health and well-being – a strong case is the monitoring of lactate and ammonium in patients hospitalized after surgery, as early warning for sepsis.
Sweat analysis is ideal for such an application: it is the only bio-fluid that is accessible in an almost completely non-obtrusive way, and it contains physiologically and metabolically rich information. However, the impactful application of sweat analysis has been limited due to two challenges: the extremely low volumes of available sweat and the apparent lack of blood-sweat correlation for many biomarkers.
SEDAS
The SEDAS project will realize an on-skin flexible sweat-sensing device that enables use of even sub nanoliter amounts of sweat and still warrant fast, autonomous, and semi-continuous detection of the biomarkers. They will also develop advanced biophysical models of the sweat production by sweat glands, that will enable them to extract predictive information from the sensing device, as an early warning for sepsis.
Monitoring of biomarkers in sweat patch format, in concert with vital signs and contextual information, is therefore a unique solution to substantially decrease the number of complications in the hospital.
The project is led by Eindhoven University of Technology (Jaap den Toonder and Jan Bergmans) and consists of three companies and one hospital: Philips Research, Holst Center IMEC NL, Micronit and Catharina Hospital in Eindhoven.
NWO-AES – Open Technology Programme
The NWO Domain Applied and Engineering Sciences (AES) facilitates applied and engineering sciences research that yields applications and impact for people and society. The domain focuses on the following three objectives for the period 2019-2022: a strengthened applied engineering sciences foundation, efficient innovation chains and visible societal impact. NWO-AES has an Open Technology Programme which is open to excellent research aimed at the possible implementation of the results. The programme offers companies and other organisations an easily accessible way of becoming involved in scientific research that leads to usable knowledge.
