A Chip That Detects Stress Levels Through Sweat Invented By EPFL Engineers: EPFL Engineers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) have developed a wearable sensing chip that can measure the concentration of cortisol in sweat.
Since cortisol is the body’s hormone released in response to stress, the chip could lead to wearables like smartwatches that can monitor its user’s stress levels throughout the day.
“[U]ntil now there has been no way to quantify stress levels in an objective manner,” EPFL wrote in its announcement. ” This creation has the potential to change that.
The patch developed by the EPFL’s Nanoelectronic Devices Laboratory (Nanolab) and Xsensio has a transistor and an electrode made from graphene.
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It has short fragments of single-stranded DNA or RNA that can bind to cortisol in order for a device to measure its concentration in sweat. “That’s the key advantage and innovative feature of our device.
Because it can be worn, scientists can collect quantitative, objective data on certain stress-related diseases. And they can do so in a non-invasive, precise, and instantaneous manner over the full range of cortisol concentrations in human sweat,” Nanolab head Adrian Ionescu said.
The engineers have already tested their creation in the lab, and their next step is testing it in a hospital setting. They’re now working with the Lausanne University Hospital to trial the system on human patients, some of whom have Cushing’s syndrome (wherein the body produces too much cortisol), Addison’s disease (wherein the body doesn’t produce enough), and stress-related obesity.
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Patients with psychological diseases aren’t included in those trials, but the team believes the patch could help doctors better understand them.
Cortisol is the body’s hormone released when a body is stressed, therefore, the chip could lead to wearables like smartwatches that can monitor its user’s stress levels throughout the day. “Until now there has been no way to quantify stress levels in an objective manner,” EPFL wrote in its announcement.”
“That’s the key advantage and innovative feature of our device. Because it can be worn, scientists can collect quantitative, objective data on certain stress-related diseases.
And they can do so in a non-invasive, precise, and instantaneous manner over the full range of cortisol concentrations in human sweat,” Nanolab head Adrian Ionescu said.
The patch developed by the EPFL’s Nanoelectronic Devices Laboratory (Nanolab) and Xsensio has a transistor and an electrode made from graphene.
After test running their creation in the lab, the engineers are ready for testing in the hospital. They’re now working with the Lausanne University Hospital to trial the system on human patients.
