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The challenges and promise of sweat sensing

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Abstract

The potential of monitoring biomarkers in sweat for health-related applications has spurred rapid growth in the field of wearable sweat sensors over the past decade. Some of the key challenges have been addressed, including measuring sweat-secretion rate and collecting sufficient sample volumes for real-time, continuous molecular analysis without intense exercise. However, except for assessment of cystic fibrosis and regional nerve function, the ability to accurately measure analytes of interest and their physiological relevance to health metrics remain to be determined. Although sweat is not a crystal ball into every aspect of human health, we expect sweat measurements to continue making inroads into niche applications involving active sweating, such as hydration monitoring for athletes and physical laborers and later for medical and casual health monitoring of relevant drugs and hormones.

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Fig. 1: Sweat gland structure and physiology.
Fig. 2: Commercial sweat-monitoring devices.
Fig. 3: Growth of the sweat-sensing field over the last few decades.

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Acknowledgements

A.J. acknowledges support from the NSF NASCENT Center, the Berkeley Sensors and Actuators Center and the Bakar Fellowship. J.H. acknowledges support from the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research (USAF contract no. FA9550-20-1-0117), a the National Science Foundation CBET award (2125056) and a National Science Foundation ECCS award (2025720). C.M. acknowledges support from the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research (USAF contract no. FA955-20-1-0117-Sub 013176-002), the National Institutes of Health (NIDDK R21/33 DK128711) and the Ross Mosier Cystic Fibrosis Research Laboratories Gift Fund. N.D. acknowledges support from the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship Program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Noelle Davis & Ali Javey

  2. Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Noelle Davis & Ali Javey

  3. Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA

    Jason Heikenfeld

  4. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA

    Jason Heikenfeld

  5. The Stanford Cystic Fibrosis Center, Center for Excellence in Pulmonary Biology, Stanford School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, USA

    Carlos Milla

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Davis, N., Heikenfeld, J., Milla, C. et al. The challenges and promise of sweat sensing. Nat Biotechnol 42, 860–871 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-023-02059-1

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