PFI: BIC: WearNet: Wearable Nanoplasmonic Biosensing Networks for Smart Health Monitoring & Diagnosis

电子、光子、机电系统和无线通信领域的重大进步促进了紧凑型可穿戴设备的发展，并应用于健身、健康和医学等不同领域。尽管潜力巨大，但现有的可穿戴设备只能测量少数参数（例如心率、呼吸、温度或血压）。在这些努力的同时，纳米技术正在推动微型传感器的开发，这些传感器可以在纳米尺度上以前所未有的精度检测不同类型的人类健康事件。体内纳米传感系统可以在人体内实时运行，被认为是一种比传统技术更快、更准确的疾病诊断方法。尽管这项技术具有潜力，但当前系统存在一些限制，例如现有便携式系统的成本和体积，这限制了其在现实世界中的影响。该项目的目标是开发基于可穿戴纳米生物传感网络的先进健康监测和疾病诊断智能服务系统。该系统由三个要素组成：1）纳米等离子体生物芯片，植入皮下，设计用于对肺癌生物标志物做出反应； 2）可穿戴智能手环，由纳米光子器件集成，用于激励和测量植入物； 3) 用于处理测量信号、提取信息并制定诊断的软件平台。这项技术将通过提供检测不同类型疾病，特别是癌症的手段，显着促进可穿戴设备的应用。通过与固态电子和先进生物医学设备领域的两位行业领导者和先驱合作，该项目预计将实现癌症进展监测系统，并产生广泛的社会影响。重要的是，将研究和工业与教育相结合是这项跨学科努力的首要任务，它将培养下一代学生科学家（支持 6 名博士生）。该项目包括四个相互交织的研究重点。第一个重点是在智能健康系统的基础上开发纳米等离子体生物传感技术。这包括由多路传感器阵列组成的植入式纳米等离子体生物芯片，用于通过血液中的生物标志物检测肺癌，以及分别通过反射激发和测量生物传感信号所需的光学纳米源和纳米光电探测器，两者都集成在可穿戴设备中。第二个重点是开发软件算法来动态校准和操作纳米源，通过考虑体内无线通道来收集和后处理纳米光电探测器上的测量信号，提取诊断信息并与医疗保健提供者安全地共享收集到的数据。第三个重点是影响整个系统设计的人为因素，包括研究纳米等离子体生物芯片在生物组织中的影响和优化、开发用于植入物持续运行的生物芯片再生技术、研究纳米光子激发平台和植入物引入的光热效应，以及与用户健康相关的敏感数据的处理和分发。最后，第四个重点将为整个拟议系统创建一个集成测试平台，包括用肺癌患者的血液样本对生物芯片进行体外测试，用植入具有血液微循环网络的组织等效模型中的生物芯片进行离体测试，以及对尸体标本进行测试。该项目由布法罗大学的一个跨学科研究小组领导，电气工程、化学和生物医学工程以及骨科系也参与其中。英特尔实验室（俄勒冈州希尔斯伯勒，大型业务合作伙伴）和 Garwood Medical Devices（纽约州布法罗，初创合作伙伴）这两个行业合作伙伴为该项目的开发做出了贡献和支持。此外，罗斯威尔帕克癌症研究所（纽约州布法罗）是一个癌症研究和治疗中心，也是该团队更广泛的合作伙伴和顾问。

Major advancements in the fields of electronics, photonics, electro-mechanical systems and wireless communication have enabled the development of compact wearable devices, with applications in diverse domains such as fitness, wellness and medicine. Despite their potential, existing wearable devices are only able to measure a few parameters (e.g., heart rate, breathing, temperature or blood pressure). In parallel to these efforts, nanotechnology is enabling the development of miniature sensors that can detect different types of human health events at the nanoscale with unprecedented accuracy. In-vivo nanosensing systems, which can operate inside the human body in real time, have been proposed as a way to provide faster and more accurate disease diagnosis over traditional technologies. Despite the potential of this technology, there are several limitations in the current systems, such as the cost and bulkiness of existing portable systems, which limit its real-world impact. The objective of this project is to develop a smart service system for advanced health monitoring and disease diagnosis based on wearable nano-biosensing networks. The system consists of three elements: 1) a nanoplasmonic biochip, to be implanted under the skin and designed to react to lung cancer biomarkers; 2) a wearable smart band, integrated by nanophotonic devices for excitation and measurement of the implant; and 3) a software platform to process the measured signals, extract the information, and formulate a diagnosis. This technology will significantly boost the applications of wearable devices, by providing the means to detect different types of diseases and, in particular, cancer. By partnering with two industry leaders and pioneers in the fields of solid-state electronics and advanced biomedical devices, this project is expected to enable cancer progression monitoring systems, with a broad societal impact. Importantly, integrating research and industry with education is a priority in this interdisciplinary effort, which will train the next generation of student scientists (6 doctoral students supported). The project encompasses four intertwined research thrusts. The first thrust is focused on the development of the nanoplasmonic biosensing technology at the basis of this smart health system. This includes an implantable nanoplasmonic biochip composed of multiplexed sensor arrays for lung cancer detection from biomarkers in blood, as well as the optical nano-sources and nano-photodetectors needed to respectively excite and measure the biosensing signals through reflection, both integrated in a wearable device. The second thrust is focused on the development of the software algorithms to dynamically calibrate and operate the nano-sources, collect and post-process the measured signals at the nano-photodetectors by considering the intra-body wireless channel, extract the diagnose information and securely share the collected data with the healthcare provider. The third thrust is focused on the human factors that impact the design of the entire system, including the study of the impact and optimization of the nanoplasmonic biochip in biological tissues, the development of biochip regeneration techniques for continued operation of the implant, the investigation of the photothermal effects introduced by the nanophotonic excitation platform and the implant, and the processing and distribution of sensitive data related to the users' health. Finally, the fourth thrust will create an integrated testbed for the entire proposed system, involving in-vitro testing of the biochips with blood samples of lung cancer patients, ex-vivo testing with biochips implanted in tissue-equivalent phantoms with blood microcirculation networks, and testing in cadaver specimens.The project is led by an interdisciplinary team of researchers at the University at Buffalo with participation of the Departments of Electrical Engineering, Chemical and Biomedical Engineering and Orthopedics. Two industry partners contribute and support the development of this project, Intel Labs (Hillsboro, Oregon, large business partner) and Garwood Medical Devices (Buffalo, NY, start-up partner). In addition, the Roswell Park Cancer Institute (Buffalo, NY), a cancer research and treatment center, serves as a broader context partner and consultant to the team.