“Smart Bandage” a new technology is here!

By bedding nanosensors in the filaments of a girth, University of Rhode Island Assistant Professor Daniel Roxbury and former URI graduate pupil Mohammad Moein Safaee have created a nonstop, non-invasive way to descry and cover infection in a crack.

“Single-walled carbon nanotubes within the girth will be suitable to identify an infection in the crack by detecting attention of hydrogen peroxide,” said Roxbury, a experimenter in URI’s College of Engineering.

Until now, the challenge with using nanotubes for this purpose has been prostrating them in a biocompatible manner similar that they stay sensitive to their surroundings, according to Roxbury.

“The microfibers that synopsize the carbon nanotubes negotiate both of these tasks,” Roxbury said. “The nanotubes don't strain from the material, yet they stay sensitive to hydrogen peroxide within the injuries.”

The “smart girth” will be covered by a miniaturized wearable device, which will wirelessly (optically) descry the signal from the carbon nanotubes in the girth. The signal can also be transmitted to a smartphone- type of device that also automatically cautions the case or a health care provider.

“This device will solely be used for individual purposes,” said Roxbury. “Still, the stopgap is that the device will diagnose an infection at an early stage, challenging smaller antibiotics and precluding drastic measures, similar as branch amputation. We fantasize this being particularly useful in those with diabetes, where the operation of habitual injuries is routine.”

The technology behind the smart girth is farther described in a composition published in Advanced Functional Accoutrements. Roxbury, Safaee, and URI doctoral pupil Mitchell Gravely penned the composition.

Safaee, who completed his doctorate in chemical engineering at URI in December 2020, learned how to produce polymeric filaments as an undergraduate pupil previous to coming to URI.

“Professor Roxbury was veritably probative of the idea of designing wearable technologies grounded on carbon nanotubes and I was agitated to take the lead on the design,” said Safaee.

Working in Roxbury’s NanoBio Engineering Laboratory in the Fascitelli Center for Advanced Engineering, Safaee used several advanced technologies to make the girth a reality.

“We designed and optimized a microfabrication process to precisely place nanosensors inside the individual filaments of a cloth,” said Safaee. “We employed slice- edge microscopes to study the structure of the accoutrements that we produced. I also employed a home- erected, near-infrared spectrometer to optimize the optic features of the fabrics.”

The coming stage of the design will involve the verification that the tapes serve duly in a petri dish with live dressed cells that would be plant in injuries.

“These cells we ’ll be using are known as fibroblasts and macrophages (white blood cells) that produce hydrogen peroxide in the presence of pathogenic bacteria,” said Roxbury. However, we ’ll move to in vivo testing in mice, “If all goes well. At that point, we'd find a collaborator who specializes in these beast crack models.”

Testing has concentrated on small girth samples, but the technology can be applied fluently to much larger tapes.

“There really is no limitation in terms of the size,” said Roxbury. “In fact, this technology will be most useful in large tapes. Larger tapes can be further of a nuisance to remove and reapply, but our device won’t need to be removed to enable discovery.”

While Roxbury moves forward with the design, Safaee has moved to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for a postdoctoral position.

“I joined the Furst Lab in MIT’s department of chemical engineering to advance and diversify my exploration in the area of molecular diagnostics and webbing technologies,” said Safaee. “I'll specifically work on designing high outturn webbing technologies grounded on nanomaterials for point-of-care diagnostics and medicine discovery operations.”

Safaee is thankful for the experience he gained at URI.

“I learned inestimable chops at URI, including near-infrared microscopy and spectroscopy, nanomaterial fabrication, and optic instrumentation, which all helped me come to an independent scientist in the field of nanobiotechnology,” stated Safaee.