Wearable Novel Metabolite Monitor

Monitoring of a soldier's health status during deployment will allow for proper countermeasure protocols to be instituted if the soldier becomes fatigued, ill, etc. A variety of metabolic molecules have been identified (e.g., glucose) as markers that can be monitored in soldiers. A monitoring device for these markers would need to be wearable, lightweight, easy-to-use, non-invasive, and non-constricting to a soldier's movement. A few minimally invasive techniques exist today to monitor a single metabolite at a time, particularly glucose; there are none capable of monitoring multiple metabolic markers. Therefore there is a great need for developing a wearable, non-invasive metabolic marker sensor that can monitor multiple analytes at a time. Lynntech proposes to develop a wearable sensor system capable of monitoring multiple metabolic markers at a time from non-invasively extracted interstitial fluid using polymeric optrodes specific to the metabolite of interest. In Phase I, Lynntech will prove the feasibility of the sensor for detection of multiple metabolites, particularly glucose and lactate. In Phase II, Lynntech will build a prototype sensor that fully integrates Lynntech's enhanced extraction technique for interstitial fluid and Lynntech's novel sensor elements into a lightweight, wearable device.