Development of Highly Swellable Microneedle Skin Patches for Skin Interstitial Fluid Sampling and In Situ Transdermal Biosensing

Personal health-monitoring devices have been commercialized in the form of eyeglasses, watches, bands, and clothes to detect the physical vital signs such as heart rate, blood pressure, and body temperature. The next generation is expected to monitor analytes in the skin compartment that contain more accurate and complete biological information. One key challenge is the accurate acquisition of the bio-signals in real time. Skin interstitial fluid (ISF) exhibits a dynamic exchange of molecules with capillary blood thereby offering continuous access to analytes with minimal trauma. This next generation of personal health-monitoring devices is built on microneedles that penetrate into the skin and extract ISF for the timely analysis of health-related analytes. It involves the synthesis and characterization of biomaterials, microneedle device fabrication and integration with electrochemical sensors. The platform technology will be tested in vitro and in vivo by taking glucose as the model biomarker.