Skin-like wearable biosensors for multimodal mental health biomarker monitoring

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PROJECT SUMMARY Mental disorders affect one in four people worldwide (~2 billion people), with the cost of mental health conditions projected to reach $6 trillion by 2030. Unfortunately, mental disorders are difficult to diagnose, monitor, and treat. Repeated triggering of daily stress can also lead to chronic stress, associated with higher risks of mental disorders, weakening immuneresponse, and cardiovascular diseases. Despite the mental health crisis, available resources and access to care scarcely begin to meet the need. Moreover, there are no objective tests or scalable technologies for detecting chronic stress. To advance precision mental healthcare, we need continuous, predictive, and quantitative measurements of mental states for stress, anxiety, and depression. Wearable devices can transform mental health care due to their ability to monitor previously inaccessible biodata. However, there are limited wearable devices designed for mental health monitoring. In the proposed research, I will tackle the mentioned problems in mental health monitoring by developing platform technologies based on skin-like wearable biosensors. The focus of the proposed study is to create a soft and wearable biosensor that can measure multiple mental health biomarkers wirelessly in real-time, providing quantifiable metrics to assist diagnosis, treatment, monitoring, and prevention of mental disorders. Two new technologies will be developed: a soft and wireless patch to measure mental health-related physical biomarkers on the skin and a new organic biosensor platform to monitor chemical biomarkers in sweat. First, I will design a soft and wireless sensor patch to monitor skin conductance changes in response to acute stressors and circadian rhythm. The designed skin conductance sensor patch, composed of intrinsically stretchable and soft materials, will provide seamless integration with skin and accurate measurement with high signal-to-noise ratios. Second, I will fabricate a soft chemical biosensor to monitor the stress hormone in sweat using organic field-effect transistors. A highly sensitive and selective aptamer chemical biosensor will be utilized in a skin-like organic material system. Both alone and combined, the skin-like wearable systems will allow continuous quantitative monitoring of mental health biomarkers, assisting in the prevention and treatment of mental disorders. Professor Zhenan Bao, Professor Leanne Williams, and Stanford University provide the tools and expertise needed to accomplish the proposed research. Working with Professor Bao, a leading scientist in the field of intrinsically stretchable materials, I will acquire scientific skills in the design, fabrication, and characterization techniques of organic materials and bioelectronics. In addition, I will gain experience working with human subjects during this postdoctoral training. For this reason, I am working with Professor Williams, my co-mentor, who is a leading professor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences. Moreover, I will obtain training in psychiatry and electrical engineering by taking classes at Stanford. This environment provides the expertise needed to accomplish the proposed research and provide me with the appropriate training to pursue a career in academic research.