Wearable Voltammetric Sensor Mitigating Biofouling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional personalized pharmacotherapy methods are invasive, costly, and time-consuming due to reliance on statistical averages, leading to suboptimal medication dosages and adverse events, while existing biofluid analysis techniques face challenges with biofouling and interference from endogenous electroactive species.
Innovation Solution
A wearable voltammetric sensor with a boron-doped diamond electrode and Nafion-coated biofouling mitigation layers is used to detect acetaminophen in biofluids like saliva and sweat, mitigating biofouling effects and creating undistorted potential windows for accurate detection.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional TDM techniques are used, then therapeutic drug monitoring can be performed, but the process becomes invasive, costly, and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces invasive mechanical blood draws with noninvasive electrochemical sensing at the skin surface. The voltammetric sensor detects acetaminophen through electrochemical reactions in sweat or interstitial fluid, eliminating the need for mechanical punctures and blood collection while maintaining therapeutic drug monitoring capability
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary polymeric membrane layer between the electrode and biofluid. This membrane selectively permits electroactive species like acetaminophen to reach the electrode while blocking larger molecules and reducing biofouling, enabling noninvasive detection without direct contact between the electrode and complex biofluid
2Productivity
If electrochemical sensing is used to detect acetaminophen, then real-time monitoring is enabled, but biofouling and interference from endogenous electroactive species occur
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary polymeric membrane layer between the electrode and biofluid. This membrane selectively permits electroactive species like acetaminophen to reach the electrode while blocking larger molecules and reducing biofouling, enabling noninvasive detection without direct contact between the electrode and complex biofluid
Solution Approach 2:
The patent modifies the local chemical environment at the electrode surface through surface termination treatments. By controlling the electrochemical properties of the electrode interface, the system enhances selectivity for acetaminophen detection while suppressing responses from other electroactive species in the biofluid
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables noninvasive, real-time, and accurate monitoring of acetaminophen levels in biofluids, facilitating personalized pharmacotherapy by reducing interference and signal degradation, thus improving therapeutic drug monitoring.
Implementation Method 1
Surface termination can be adjusted via tuning electron transfer kinetics pertaining to redox reactions
Implementation Method 2
the biofouling and interferent mitigation layers include an adsorption layer
Implementation Method 3
the biofouling and interferent mitigation layers are negatively charged
Data Source
AI summary
Example implementations include a device with an electrode electrically responsive to presence of a biochemical present within a biofluid, and one or more biofouling and interferent mitigation layers disposed on the electrode to block transmission of biofouling agents to the electrode and the reaction of interferents on the electrode. Example implementations also include a method of obtaining a biofluid sample, mitigating a biofouling characteristic associated with the biofluid sample, and obtaining a biochemical characteristic associated with the biofluid sample.