No exertion required with new sweat monitoring device

Sweat contains biomarkers that can monitor various health conditions and sampling it is preferred by users due to its painless nature compared to giving blood samples.

To obtain sufficient nutrients or hormones from sweat for testing, intense physical activity was previously required to induce sweat, which can be challenging for individuals with limited mobility.

Now, Dr Kim Joohee from the Bionics Research Center at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) and Professor John A. Rogers from Northwestern University, Illinois, have announced their new sweat monitoring device that delivers drugs that stimulate sweat glands through the skin. Their findings are detailed in Biosensors and Bioelectronics.

The research team developed a flexible device capable of delivering drugs to sweat glands by applying a current to a hydrogel containing drugs.

This small and soft device can be easily attached to the skin. Sweat induced by the drug is collected in microfluidic channels within the device and analysed for biomarkers using biosensors. According to KIST, this enables the analysis of biomarkers in sweat, reducing the need for hospital visits for testing and lowering the risk of biomarker contamination during testing, thereby increasing accuracy.