Description:

Please join us for Stanley Manne Children's Research Institute's inaugural Pediatric Science Seminar, "Soft Skin-Interfaced Wireless Electronic and Microfluidic Sensors in Healthcare" with speaker Dr. John Rogers from Northwestern University. The seminar will be held April 3, from 10:00am-11:00am in the Simpson-Querrey Auditorium.

The skin is mechanically soft and curved; modern electronic and microfluidic technologies are rigid and planar. Eliminating this profound mismatch in physical properties creates vast opportunities in man-made systems that can naturally integrate with the epidermis for diagnostic, therapeutic, or sensory function with important, unique capabilities relevant to clinical healthcare. Over the last decade, a convergence of new concepts in materials science, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and advanced manufacturing has led to the emergence of diverse, novel classes of 'biocompatible' electronic and microfluidic systems with skin-like physical properties. This talk describes the key ideas and presents some of the most recent device examples, including (1) wireless, battery-free electronic 'tattoos', with applications in continuous monitoring of vital signs in maternal and pediatric populations, including active deployments in the most advanced hospitals in the United States and clinics in multiple countries in Africa, and (2) microfluidic platforms that can capture, manipulate, and perform biomarker analysis on microliter volumes of sweat, with applications in cystic fibrosis and nutritional monitoring.