I-Corps: Thermopile-based Enzymatic Sugar Sensor Array (TESSA)

食品和饮料中的糖测量代表了农业、食品和健康行业以及科学领域非常大的国家和全球市场。近年来，精准农业、低碳水化合物啤酒酿造和低热量食品/饮料生产等新兴产业的发展，要求对液体溶液、农产品和植物中的总糖含量以及糖种类进行准确、快速和低成本的测量。迄今为止，这些行业中所有可用的糖测量都是通过昂贵的实验室分析技术或通过精确度稍低的手动酶试剂盒和折射法进行的，这些试剂盒和折射法仅适用于液体溶液。拟议中的新设备，基于热电堆的酶糖传感器阵列（TESSA），将取代上述任何技术。此外，它可以通过一次测量同时检测多种糖，不仅在液体中，而且在活植物和蔬菜中具有高精度和准确度。该项目的目标是创建一个免校准的TESSA原理验证原型，以向潜在客户/投资者展示所提出方法的显著优势。为了实现这一目标，该团队将把客户发现过程与设备本身的工程工作相结合。原型传感器将通过微机电系统（MEMS）技术的应用制造。支持这一点的将是几个概念包装设计的开发，反映了各种潜在的应用，如农业，健身和健康等，其中一个或两个设计将使用3D打印制造。当然，包装的确切设计将取决于应用。然而，在所有情况下，该团队预计其包装将包括对传感器的远程访问（例如通过WiFi），以持续监测产品中的糖，并自动记录信息，以便在其他生产商/客户之间进行可能的共享，或为相关机构的产品认证准备自动报告。

Sugar measurements in food and beverages represent very large national and global markets in agriculture, food and health industry and science. Recent developments of new industries such as precise agriculture, brewing of low carb beers and the production of reduced calorie food /beverages bring the demand for accurate, fast and low-cost measurements of total sugar content as well as sugar species in liquid solutions, agricultural produce and plants. To date, all available measurements of sugars in these industries are performed either by expensive laboratory analytical techniques or by somewhat less precise manual enzymatic kits and refractometry, which work only with liquid solutions. The proposed new device, the Thermopile-based Enzymatic Sugar Sensor Array (TESSA), will replace any of the above technologies. Furthermore, it can detect several sugars simultaneously with a single measurement with high precision and accuracy not only in liquids but in live plants and vegetables. The goal of this project is the creation of a calibration-free, proof of principle TESSA prototype to demonstrate to potential clients/investors the significant advantages of the proposed approach. To achieve this goal, the team will integrate the customer discovery process with engineering work on the device itself. Prototype sensors will be fabricated through the application of MicroElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS) technology. Supporting this will be the development of several conceptual packaging designs reflecting the wide variety of potential applications such as agriculture, fitness and health and others and one or two of the designs will be fabricated with the use of the 3D printing. The exact design of packaging will, of course, depend on the application. In all cases, however, the team expects that its packaging will include remote access (e.g. via WiFi) to sensors for continuous monitoring of sugars in products and automatic logging of the information for possible sharing among other producers/customers or for preparation of automatic reports for product certification with relevant agencies.