Electromechanical sensor could facilitate real-time wound monitoring

Researchers at Binghamton University’s Intimately Bio-Integrated Biosensors lab have developed a wearable, open-mesh electromechanical sensor similar to the skin’s structural design. It has gold sensor cables that can mirror skin elasticity and is allegedly able to monitor oxygen and lactate on the skin. This development could facilitate real-time wound monitoring. The researchers hope to one day develop a new, more advanced sensor that will be assimilated into internal organs to gain a deeper understanding of diseases that affect the human body.
Matthew Brown, a PhD student at Binghamton University, said: “We eventually hope that these sensors and engineering accomplishments can help advance healthcare applications and provide a better quantitative understanding in disease progression, wound care, general health, fitness monitoring and more. We are focused on developing next-generation platforms that can integrate with biological tissue…..We were very interested in real-time, on-site evaluation of wound healing progress in a near future. Both lactate and oxygen are critical biomarkers to access wound healing progression.”
Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Ahyeon Koh, said: “The bio-mimicry structured sensor platform allows free mass transfer between biological tissue and bio-interfaced electronics. Therefore, this intimately bio-integrated sensing system is capable of determining critical biochemical events while being invisible to the biological system or not evoking an inflammatory response.”