Project description
Harnessing sweat for early disease detection
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) affects over 100 million people in Europe, posing a significant public health challenge. Often asymptomatic until reaching advanced stages, early detection remains a pressing concern. In this context, the EIC-funded KERMIT project presents a revolutionary solution by harnessing the potential of human sweat and wearable technology for non-invasive mass screening and remote monitoring of CKD. It uses human sweat that contains valuable biomarkers offering crucial health insights. The project merges cost-effective, disposable technology with unobtrusive detection of three CKD biomarkers (cystatin C, creatinine and urea). Powered by a single chip, the simplified platform wirelessly transmits data via smartphones. Sustainable materials and scalable printing techniques ensure minimal environmental impact.
Objective
Human sweat is abundant with biomarkers with information about underlying health conditions. In combination with the capabilities of wearable devices, sweat monitoring provides a promising pathway to continuous healthcare. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a long-term condition in which waste cannot be removed from the blood stream and can lead to recurring infections and early cardiovascular disease. It affects over 100 million people in Europe alone and can go unnoticed until severe symptoms appear. Thus, there is enormous potential to develop non-invasive mass screening technologies for early diagnosis and monitoring leading to preventive treatment.
Here, we propose a kidney disease sweat patch for early detection and remote monitoring (KERMIT). By merging three main concepts: the development of a cost-effective, and disposable sensing platform with minimal environmental impact; the unobtrusive detection of 3 CKD biomarkers (cystatin-c, creatinine, and urea) from sweat; and the association of sweat-based concentration with blood levels, symptoms, and overall disease progress. The simplified disposable platform includes an iontophoresis device to produce sweat, a microfluidics collection system, and a single chip to power, read, analyze, and wirelessly transmit data from various electrochemical sensors through smartphone RF/NFC protocols. The manufacturing through scalable printing techniques with sustainable materials ensures cost-effectiveness while minimizing and environmental impact after disposal. Through quantitative comparison with standard testing methodologies, the proposed system is envisioned to increase the knowledge and validate sweat-based non-invasive diagnostics for CKD and a variety of diseases. This will allow -invasive routine screening of populations at risk and remote health monitoring, opening opportunities for targeted hospital and government health programs.
Fields of science
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesclassical mechanicsfluid mechanicsmicrofluidics
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesinternetinternet of things
- medical and health sciencesclinical medicinecardiologycardiovascular diseases
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringsensors
- medical and health sciencesclinical medicinenephrologykidney diseases
Keywords
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.3.1 - The European Innovation Council (EIC) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-EIC - HORIZON EIC GrantsCoordinator
8010 Graz
Austria