Secure, Smart, Point of Care Sensors for Lung Health

Principal Investigator: 
Rebecca Heise, associate professor and undergraduate program director, biomedical engineering, Virginia Commonwealth University

Co-Principal Investigators: 
Vamsi K. Yadavalli, associate professor, chemical and life science engineering, VCU; Angela Reynolds, associate professor, mathematics, VCU; Alpha Fowler, William Taliaferro Thompson professor of medicine, VCU; Jennifer Van Mullekom, associate professor, statistics, Virginia Tech; Carl Elks, associate professor, electrical and computer engineering; VCU 

Project Description: 
Point of Care biosensors are needed for monitoring in diseases affecting the lung, such as sepsis. There is an imperative need to improve data security of these devices as they will be relaying and indicating sensitive information from patient to clinician. Our overall goal is to develop a minimally invasive, secure, smart biosensor that predicts lung health. The goal of this one-year proposal is to advance the technology of smart and secure Point of Care biosensors by focusing on the following objectives: Objective 1: Engineer secure-by-design smart sensor using samples from experimental lung injury models; Objective 2: Develop an experimentally driven computational framework to accurately predict lung injury severity based upon sensor levels. We will utilize our interdisciplinary team to develop secure, smart biosensors that can predict overall lung health by inputting sensor readings into an in silico computational model of lung injury. Coupled with data analytics and data security, the results from this project will broadly advance Virginia’s leadership role in the development of biodevices. The development of secure tools to accurately measure patient biomarkers presents a new opportunity for the development of smart health biodevices that can affect the lives of millions.

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