U-RHYTHM: A powerful research tool for studies on human rhythms in Health and Disease

We have created a prototype system – “U-RHYTHM” (Fig 1) – which enables, for the first time, circadian and ultradian rhythms to be investigated in free-moving individuals in their own home or work environment.

Now that we have regulatory guidance from the MHRA Innovation Office that we can provide other centres with our current U-RHYTHM system for research use, we want to work with scientists from different research communities to enable them to develop important new lines of research for which there are no current enabling methodologies.

We now need: a) A much more user friendly version of U-RHYTHM that can be readily used both by the research community and clinicians.

The current version is very reliable in experienced hands but needs specially trained personnel and would not be suitable for commercialisation. b) To demonstrate its value in three new specialties: - Chronobiologists using its ability to measure dynamic changes in tissue metabolome, melatonin and glucocorticoids - Cardiovascular scientists who can utilise our ability to measure catecholamines, aldosterone and cortisol to improve diagnosis and pathophysiological understanding of hypertension. - Inflammation biologists needing to measure dynamic changes in tissue inflammatory mediators.