I-Corps: Remote Blood Analysis for Digital Animal Health

这个i-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发一种植入式传感器和测量系统，以数字方式监控饲料动物的健康。建议的植入式传感器平台测量各种健康生物标志物，如温度、氧气、葡萄糖、怀孕激素和乳酸，而不需要抽血或其他体液的昂贵费用。饲养场动物的发病率和死亡率在15%-45%之间，仅牛呼吸系统疾病(BRD)就造成10亿美元的经济负担。此外，拟议中的技术有可能通过在常规方法之前预测疾病天数来降低饲料动物使用的抗生素和药物的使用量。该系统使用低成本的无源传感器植入物，提供了比替代有源电子可穿戴设备低得多的成本解决方案。这个i-Corps项目基于开发一种米粒大小的发光水凝胶植入物，以及能够“读取”植入物的数据采集仪器系统。生物传感器被植入动物体内，就在组织表面下几毫米处。植入设备被植入了一种分子，当连接到目标生物标记物(如氧)上并受到特定波长的光激发时，该分子就会发光。读数仪器的大小类似于金属探测器，产生激发光并测量植入物的发射返回光信号。类似的植入式生物传感器使用皮肤附着式读数仪器，在市场上也可以买到，并得到监管机构的批准，用于连续测量人体的氧气。与使用皮肤阅读器的人类应用不同，这项拟议的技术使用坚固的户外系统，用于牛肉和乳制品应用，每天在几厘米远的距离读取植入传感器几次，以便及早发现疾病。到目前为止，植入物和用于询问植入性氧气和温度传感器的读取器系统已被设计为在12厘米的距离内使用。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.