Microneedle sensors for dermal interstitial fluid analysis

The rapid advancement in personalized healthcare has driven the development of wearable biomedical devices for real-time biomarker monitoring and diagnosis. Traditional invasive blood-based diagnostics are painful and limited to sporadic health snapshots. To address these limitations, microneedle-based sensing platforms have emerged, utilizing interstitial fluid (ISF) as an alternative biofluid for continuous health monitoring in a minimally invasive and painless manner.

The team led by Wei Gao from California Institute of Technology providea a comprehensive overview of microneedle sensor technology, covering microneedle design, fabrication methods, and sensing strategy. Additionally, it explores the integration of monitoring electronics for continuous on-body monitoring. Representative applications of microneedle sensing platforms for both monitoring and therapeutic purposes are introduced, highlighting their potential to revolutionize personalized healthcare.

The advancement of microneedle sensing platforms marks a significant leap forward in the field of personalized healthcare and wearable biosensing devices. This review discussed diverse aspects of microneedle sensing technology while highlighting its potential as a daily health monitoring and diagnosis platform. Integrating microneedles with variable sensing mechanisms and miniaturized monitoring electronics offers minimally invasive and continuous detection methods for various biomarkers in ISF. With the significant advances in microneedle sensing technology, wearable ISF analyzing devices can potentially replace blood-based gold standard diagnostics in the future.