Wounds require immediate attention, whether the injuries occur on battlefields or kitchen counters. We’ve written about various development in wound care and healing technology development. We covered work on injectable bandages at Texas A&M University, smart bandages that monitor oxygen levels by a group from Wellman Center for Photomedicine of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Harvard Medical School (HMS)., and nanofiber wound dressings from the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences(SEAS).
Researchers at Binghamton University’s Intimately Bio-Integrated Biosensors lab designed wearable sensors that mimic skin to aid wound healing processes. The team designed the sensor structure based on human skin microarchitecture. Gold sensor cables make the wearable elastic — similar to skin — in order to conform closely to the human body. The open-mesh electro-mechanical sensor monitors oxygen and lactate on the skin: critical biomarkers in wound-healing. Because the structure’s open mesh design allows unimpeded transfer between tissue and the electronics, the body’s defences don’t detect the wearable and therefore don’t induce inflammation, according to Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering Ahyeon Koh.
The Binghampton group published a paper about their work with open-mesh electromechanical sensors in Biosensors and Bioelectronics. Future work on this project includes adding biosensors to the skin-like structure. The team also thinks similar structures could be incorporated into internal organs to learn more about diseases.
