I-Corps: Translation Potential of a Non-Invasive Salivary Biomarker Monitoring System for Personalized Wellness Management

This I-Corps project is based on the development of a biomonitoring device to track wellness and disease management. The device measures key metabolites, which are small molecules such as glucose (the body’s main source of energy) and ketones (metabolites from the breakdown of fat in the body seen during fasting or ketogenic diets) that can be measured in saliva and are important for providing information on physiological systems.

Monitoring metabolites is crucial for understanding the body’s complex physiological processes and advancing both diagnostics and therapeutics. This noninvasive method allows individuals and clinicians to make informed decisions about daily nutrition and physical activity, supporting weight management and mitigating risks associated with metabolic disorders like diabetes.

This device may have the potential to reduce healthcare costs, improve patient adherence, and enhance overall health outcomes.

This I-Corps project utilizes experiential learning coupled with a first-hand investigation of the industry ecosystem to assess the translation potential of a device to measure metabolites in saliva. Currently, saliva is not used for biomonitoring as dilution can cause metabolite levels to fall below the detection limits of traditional sensors and/or increase susceptibility to interference, reducing the accuracy and reliability of measurements.

This device is based on a single-walled carbon nanotube electrode architecture that leverages tandem metabolic pathway-like reactions for electrochemical analysis, enabling broad-spectrum metabolite detection. This technology integrates cofactors, self-mediates reactions at maximum enzyme capacity, and employs multifunctional enzymes to facilitate accurate metabolite sensing while mitigating interference.

Proof-of-concept studies on a set of 12 key metabolites and nutrients have demonstrated a 100-fold enhancement in signal-to-noise ratio with multi-day operational stability. This technology demonstrated precise and non-invasive monitoring of highly diluted endogenous metabolites and nutrients in saliva, and robust in-vivo continuous monitoring of metabolites in the blood and brain environments.

This solution may allow the use of saliva to monitor metabolites that are key indicators of physiological systems, reducing healthcare costs, improving patient adherence, and enhancing overall health outcomes.

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.