I-Corps: Remote Blood Analysis for Digital Animal Health

I-Corps项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是开发一种植入式传感器和测量系统，以数字化方式监测饲料动物的健康状况。该植入式传感器平台可以测量广泛的健康生物标志物，如温度、氧气、葡萄糖、妊娠激素和乳酸，而不需要抽取血液或其他体液。饲养场动物的发病率和死亡率在15% - 45%之间，仅牛呼吸道疾病（BRD）就造成了10亿美元的经济负担。此外，这项拟议中的技术有可能通过比传统方法更早地预测疾病天数，减少抗生素和饲料动物药物的使用。该系统使用低成本的无源传感器植入物，与其他有源电子可穿戴设备相比，其成本显著降低。这个I-Corps项目的基础是开发一种米粒大小的发光水凝胶植入物和一种能够“读取”植入物的数据收集仪器系统。这种生物传感器被植入动物的皮下，距离组织表面只有几毫米。植入装置中植入了一种分子，当它附着在目标生物标志物（如氧气）上并被特定波长的光激发时，这种分子就会发光。读数仪器，大小类似于金属探测器，产生激发光并测量来自植入物的发射返回光信号。类似的植入式生物传感器使用附着在皮肤上的读数仪器，在市场上已经上市，并得到监管机构的批准，可以连续测量人体的氧气。与人类使用皮肤附着读取器的应用不同，拟议的技术使用一个坚固的户外系统，用于牛肉和乳制品应用，每天几次读取植入传感器几厘米的距离，以早期发现疾病。到目前为止，植入物和读取器系统已经设计用于在12厘米的距离上使用植入的氧气和温度传感器。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of an implantable sensor and measurement system to monitor the health of feed animals digitally. The proposed implantable sensor platform measures a wide range of health biomarkers such as temperature, oxygen, glucose, pregnancy hormones, and lactate without the expensive of drawing blood or other bodily fluids. Morbidity and mortality rates of animals in feedlots range between 15% - 45% with Bovine Respiratory Disease (BRD) alone having an economic burden of $1 billion. In addition, the proposed technology has the potential to lower the use of antibiotics and medications used with feed animals by predicting illness days before conventional methods. The system uses a low-cost passive sensor implant that offers a significantly lower cost solution than alternative active electronic wearable devices.This I-Corps project is based on the development of a luminescent hydrogel implant that is the size of a grain of rice and an instrumentation system for data collection that is able to “read” the implant. The biosensor is implanted under the animal’s hide just a few millimeters below the tissue surface. The implant device is seeded with a molecule that lights up when attached to a target biomarker such as oxygen and excited with light of a certain wavelength. The reading instrument, similar in size to a metal detector, produces the excitation light and measures the emission return light signal from the implant. Similar implantable biosensors that use skin-attached reading instruments are commercially available in the market and are approved by regulators for continuously measuring oxygen in humans. Unlike human applications that use a skin attached reader, the proposed technology uses a rugged outdoor system for beef and dairy applications to read the implant sensor at a distance of few centimeters several times a day for early detection of illness. To date, implants and a reader system to interrogate implantable oxygen and temperature sensors have been designed for use at a distance of 12 cm.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.