are cofounders of Epicore Biosystems, a company that develops epidermal microfluidic devices. are inventors on patents and patent applications related to epidermal microfluidics, including applications in CF diagnostics (patent “Thin, soft, skin-mounted microfluidic networks for detection and analysis of targets of interest in sweat,” #US 2020/0093416 A1 and patent “Microfluidic systems for epidermal sampling and sensing,” #US 2020/0155047 A1). All authors contributed to proofreading the manuscript. led the design and development of the patient trials and were assisted by M.I. Ciraldo to fabrication process development D.F., K.G., J.B.M., S.P.L., J. Choi contributed to device fabrication and testing J. led the experimental work supported throughout by M.I. led the development of the concepts, designed the experiments, and interpreted the results. Author contributions: T.R.R., S.H., and J.A.R. for providing access to the adhesive materials used in this work. Lurie Children’s Hospital, Stanley Manne Research Institute, and Northwestern Memorial Hospital. We also acknowledge the in-kind study support from the Ann & Robert H. This publication was supported by the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health under award number R43AG067835. acknowledges additional support from startup funding from the University of Hawaiʻi, as a junior investigator from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health (P20GM113134) and the Hawaiʻi Community Foundation (Robert C. Funding: We would like to acknowledge funding support provided by the Querrey Simpson Institute for Bioelectronics at Northwestern University. Rugg in assisting with study administration as well as T. A portion of this work was also performed in the University of California, Santa Barbara Nanofabrication Facility. This work used Northwestern University Micro/Nano Fabrication Facility (NUFAB) and the Pritzker Nanofabrication Facility, part of the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago, which are both partially supported by Soft and Hybrid Nanotechnology Experimental (SHyNE) Resource (NSF ECCS-1542205), a node of the National Science Foundation’s National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure. The wearable microfluidic technologies and smartphone-based analytics reported here establish the foundation for diagnosis of CF outside of clinical settings.
Clinical validation studies involving patients with CF and healthy subjects, across a spectrum of age groups, support clinical equivalence compared to existing device platforms in terms of accuracy and demonstrate meaningful reductions in rates of leakage.
Real-time image analysis of chloride reagents allows for quantitative assessment of chloride concentrations using a smartphone camera, without requiring extraction of sweat or external analysis.
Intimate, conformal coupling with the skin supports nearly perfect efficiency in sweat collection without leakage. Here, we introduce a soft, epidermal microfluidic device (“sweat sticker”) designed for the simple and rapid collection and analysis of sweat. The collection and analysis of sweat using conventional wrist-strapped devices and iontophoresis can be cumbersome, particularly for infants with fragile skin, who often have insufficient sweat production. Early diagnosis via quantitative assessment of sweat chloride allows prompt initiation of care and is critically important to extend life expectancy and improve quality of life. The concentration of chloride in sweat remains the most robust biomarker for confirmatory diagnosis of cystic fibrosis (CF), a common life-shortening genetic disorder.
Reeder, Aurélie Hourlier-Fargette, Amay J. Jeang, Joseph Chafetz, … Show All …, Hannah Gaertner, Grace Young, Steve Rebollo, Jeffrey B. Curtis, Daniel Franklin, Kerem Guventurk, William J.