A flexible wearable system for integrated sweat stimulation and chloride analysis in cystic fibrosis diagnosis
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Cystic Fibrosis diagnosis relies on qualitative sweat chloride testing, which is limited to trained personnel, bulky instrumentation, cumbersome workflow at specialized clinical centers with high per-test cost. Recent advances in wearable sweat biomarker sensors offer opportunities in development of point-of-care CF sweat chloride analysis. This work presents a flexible, wearable platform for CF sweat chloride testing, based on miniaturized, automated iontophoresis stimulation, microfluidic sweat collection, and colorimetric chloride analysis. This system enables quantitative, visually interpretable chloride measurements without external instrumentation, requires a considerably smaller volume of sweat to operate, and reduces the per-test cost to around 1 dollar. Clinical validation of the device with over 50 subjects, spanning a board age range, demonstrates strong agreement with standard clinical sweat testing protocol and reliable operation across physiologically relevant chloride concentrations. This platform provides a practical, scalable alternative for cystic fibrosis diagnostics in both clinical and resource-limited settings.
Source: npj Digital Medicine
Authors: Mingyu Zhou, Da Som Yang, Joohee Kim, Jae-Hwan Kim, Evangelos E. Kanatzidis, Jong Uk Kim, Seyong Oh, Larissa Rugg, Radhika Mathur, Shupeng Li, Seungyeob Kim, Jiheon Kang, Hanbang Hua, Jihun Park, Tonglu Zhou, Chanho Park, Seung Gi Seo, Youngjin Jo, Jihun Cha, Jiwon Kim, Alexander J. Aranyosi, Yonggang Huang, Manu Jain, Roozbeh Ghaffari, Susanna A. McColley, John A. Rogers
Language: English
Subfield: Biomedical Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $4,090
Funders: National Science Foundation, Northwestern University, Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin Research Institute, National Research Foundation, National Research Foundation of Korea, Ministry of Science and ICT, South Korea, Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, Harvard University, National Cancer Institute, Division of Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems
OpenAlex ID: W7171560083