Reliable, low-cost, fully integrated hydration sensors for monitoring and diagnosis of inflammatory skin diseases in any environment

Surabhi R Madhvapathy; Heling Wang; Jessy Kong; Michael Zhang; Jong Yoon Lee; Jun Bin Park; Hokyung Jang; Zhaoqian Xie; Jingyue Cao; Raudel Avila; Chen Wei; Vincent D'Angelo; Jason Zhu; Ha Uk Chung; Sarah Coughlin; Manish Patel; Joshua Winograd; Jaeman Lim; Anthony Banks; Shuai Xu; Yonggang Huang; John A Rogers

doi:10.1126/sciadv.abd7146

Reliable, low-cost, fully integrated hydration sensors for monitoring and diagnosis of inflammatory skin diseases in any environment

Sci Adv. 2020 Dec 4;6(49):eabd7146. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abd7146. Print 2020 Dec.

Authors

Surabhi R Madhvapathy^{1

2

3}, Heling Wang^{1

4

5}, Jessy Kong^{2

3

6}, Michael Zhang^{7

8}, Jong Yoon Lee^{2

3

9}, Jun Bin Park^{2

3

9}, Hokyung Jang^{2

3}, Zhaoqian Xie¹⁰, Jingyue Cao⁹, Raudel Avila⁵, Chen Wei^{1

4

5}, Vincent D'Angelo^{1

2

3}, Jason Zhu^{2

3

11

12}, Ha Uk Chung^{2

3

9}, Sarah Coughlin^{2

3

6}, Manish Patel^{3

13}, Joshua Winograd^{1

2

3}, Jaeman Lim^{2

3}, Anthony Banks^{2

3}, Shuai Xu^{14

3

6

7}, Yonggang Huang^{15

2

3

4

5}, John A Rogers^{15

2

3

4

5

6

12}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA.
² Querrey Simpson Institute for Bioelectronics, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL 60611, USA.
³ Center for Bio-Integrated Electronics, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA.
⁴ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA.
⁵ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA.
⁶ Department of Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA.
⁷ Department of Dermatology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL 60611, USA.
⁸ Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN 37240, USA.
⁹ Sibel Inc., Evanston, IL 60208, USA.
¹⁰ State Key Laboratory of Structural Analysis for Industrial Equipment, Department of Engineering Mechanics, International Research Center for Computational Mechanics, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China.
¹¹ Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA.
¹² Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA.
¹³ University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60612, USA.
¹⁴ Querrey Simpson Institute for Bioelectronics, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL 60611, USA. [email protected] [email protected] [email protected].
¹⁵ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA. [email protected] [email protected] [email protected].

Abstract

Present-day dermatological diagnostic tools are expensive, time-consuming, require substantial operational expertise, and typically probe only the superficial layers of skin (~15 μm). We introduce a soft, battery-free, noninvasive, reusable skin hydration sensor (SHS) adherable to most of the body surface. The platform measures volumetric water content (up to ~1 mm in depth) and wirelessly transmits data to any near-field communication-compatible smartphone. The SHS is readily manufacturable, comprises unique powering and encapsulation strategies, and achieves high measurement precision (±5% volumetric water content) and resolution (±0.015°C skin surface temperature). Validation on n = 16 healthy/normal human participants reveals an average skin water content of ~63% across multiple body locations. Pilot studies on patients with atopic dermatitis (AD), psoriasis, urticaria, xerosis cutis, and rosacea highlight the diagnostic capability of the SHS (P _AD = 0.0034) and its ability to study impact of topical treatments on skin diseases.

Copyright © 2020 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC).

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.