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WSU Researchers Awarded $1M NASA Grant For Biomedical Sensor

Wichita State University

Researchers at Wichita State University have received a grant from NASA to develop a biomedical sensor that attaches to the body.

The wearable device is called a smart skin biomedical sensor. It looks like a rectangular copper sticker with geometric patterns.

Based on their early work , a group of student and faculty researchers at WSU received a $1.1 million grant from NASA to continue developing the sensor. It measures things like blood flow, blood gas levels and muscle degeneration—all without batteries or electrical components.

Credit Wichita State University
A graphic depicting how the biomedical sensor works.

Head researcher Kim Cluff presented the sensor at a Health Care Innovation Forum in Wichita earlier this year.

“Most of you are probably familiar with MRI. It uses a combination of magnetic fields and radio waves to create incredible images of the human body," he said. "What if we could compress these MRI systems into something as small as a Band-aide or a patch?”

NASA could one day use the sensor for their own research. Cluff says he thinks doctors could also use it as a diagnostic tool for patients.

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Nadya Faulx is KMUW's Digital News Editor and Reporter, which means she splits her time between working on-air and working online, managing news on KMUW.org, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. She joined KMUW in 2015 after working for a newspaper in western North Dakota. Before that she was a diversity intern at NPR in Washington, D.C.