Heart Attack Monitoring Patch

This study targets a bottleneck in myocardial infarction care: cardiac troponin testing still depends on blood draws, trained staff, and centralized instruments, often delaying decisions during the first hours after symptom onset. It introduces MiCaP, a minimally invasive microneedle-based capacitive biosensor for measuring cardiac troponin I (cTnI) directly in dermal interstitial fluid (ISF), supporting future point-of-care, ambulatory, and wearable cardiac biomarker monitoring.

MiCaP uses a 5 × 5 conical microneedle array coated with interdigitated Cr/Au electrodes and functionalized with anti-cTnI antibodies. Instead of labels, enzymes, or redox mediators, it detects cTnI binding through non-faradaic electric-double-layer capacitance changes at the microneedle–ISF interface, enabling a simpler in situ sensing architecture.

The device achieved an in vitro dynamic range of 10 pg/mL to 10 ng/mL, a detection limit of 3.27 pg/mL, and a response time below 15 minutes. It showed minimal cross-reactivity and >93% recovery in cTnI-spiked human serum. In vivo rat studies further showed discrimination between baseline and elevated cTnI in ISF, measuring 3.2 ± 0.4 pg/mL in controls and 912 ± 683 pg/mL after cTnI administration, with trends consistent with serum immunoassay results. Overall, the work supports ISF as a viable biofluid for minimally invasive cardiac biomarker monitoring and positions MiCaP as a promising platform for future point-of-care cardiovascular diagnostics.

The research led to a filed patent application in microneedle-based biosensing, establishing intellectual property around the core sensing platform. The main findings were published in ACS Sensors (paper link). The publication was further selected as a cover-feature article for the December 26, 2025 issue of ACS Sensors — Volume 10, Issue 12 — recognizing the scientific impact and innovation of the work (cover art link). 

The research led to a filed patent application in microneedle-based biosensing, establishing intellectual property around the core sensing platform. The main findings were published in ACS Sensors (paper link). The publication was further selected as a cover-feature article for the December 26, 2025 issue of ACS Sensors — Volume 10, Issue 12 — recognizing the scientific impact and innovation of the work (cover art link). 

The research led to a filed patent application in microneedle-based biosensing, establishing intellectual property around the core sensing platform. The main findings were published in ACS Sensors (paper link). The publication was further selected as a cover-feature article for the December 26, 2025 issue of ACS Sensors — Volume 10, Issue 12 — recognizing the scientific impact and innovation of the work (cover art link). 

The research led to a filed patent application in microneedle-based biosensing, establishing intellectual property around the core sensing platform. The main findings were published in ACS Sensors (paper link). The publication was further selected as a cover-feature article for the December 26, 2025 issue of ACS Sensors — Volume 10, Issue 12 — recognizing the scientific impact and innovation of the work (cover art link).