Recently, a major scientific breakthrough was reported in the field of medical engineering at the California Institute of Technology. Professor Gao Wei led his interdisciplinary team and worked with researchers from the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California to successfully develop a smart bandage called iCares, which has brought revolutionary changes to the monitoring and treatment of chronic wounds. This innovative achievement is expected to completely change the care model for patients with chronic wounds and improve the treatment effect.

Chronic wounds, such as those that are difficult to heal due to diabetes or poor blood circulation, have always been a difficult problem in the medical field. Not only do patients have to endure long-term pain, but caregivers also face challenges such as difficult monitoring and poor treatment effects. Professor Gao Wei's team has long been committed to solving this problem. As early as 2023, they have taken a key step. The smart bandage they developed successfully achieved real-time data monitoring of chronic wounds in animal models and can accelerate wound healing by timely applying drugs or electric fields to stimulate tissue growth.

This time, the research team further broke through the technical bottleneck and focused on patients with chronic wounds. They selected 20 human patients with chronic wounds as research subjects. The wounds of these patients could not heal on their own due to diabetes or poor blood circulation. They also studied the wound conditions of other patients before and after surgery. After in-depth research and repeated experiments, the iCares smart bandage came into being.

The iCares smart bandage is equipped with three unique microfluidic components. These micromodules act as precise "liquid navigators" that can cleverly guide and control the flow of liquid. They can not only effectively remove excess moisture from the wound and create a favorable environment for wound healing, but also ensure that the collected body fluid samples are the freshest, avoiding the mixing of new and old fluids that affects the accuracy of the measurement results. Professor Gao Wei, who is also a researcher at the Heritage Medical Research Institute, said when introducing the technology: "Our innovative microfluidic technology is one of the core advantages of iCares. By removing moisture from the wound, it can significantly promote wound healing. At the same time, ensuring the freshness of the sample is crucial to obtaining accurate biomarker data. iCares performs well in this regard and can monitor important biomarkers of inflammation and infection in real time."

In practical applications, the iCares smart bandage has demonstrated excellent performance. In a new paper published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, the research team pointed out that the bandage can accurately detect molecules such as nitric oxide (an indicator of inflammation) and hydrogen peroxide (a biomarker of infection), and may even send out early warning signals one to three days before patients show obvious symptoms, buying precious time for timely intervention and treatment.

Even more impressive is that the research team has also developed a machine learning algorithm. Like an experienced "wound diagnosis expert", the algorithm can successfully classify patients' wounds and accurately predict the healing time, with an accuracy comparable to that of expert clinicians. The realization of this function provides a more scientific and accurate basis for decision-making in clinical treatment.

From the design point of view, the iCares smart bandage is both practical and innovative. It is made of flexible, biocompatible polymer strips, which are not only comfortable to wear, but also can be mass-produced through low-cost 3D printing technology, reducing the cost of use. The bandage integrates a nano-engineered biomarker sensor array to ensure the sensitivity and accuracy of detection, suitable for sanitary and disposable application scenarios. In addition, the system also contains a reusable printed circuit board for processing signals and wirelessly transmitting data to user interfaces such as smartphones, so that patients and medical staff can check the wound condition at any time.

The three microfluidic modules inside iCares each have their own functions: a membrane is responsible for absorbing wound fluid from the wound surface; a bionic component transports the fluid to the sensor array for analysis; and a microcolumn module transports the sampled fluid to the outside of the bandage. This ingenious design makes the entire monitoring and analysis process efficient and orderly.

Behind this research achievement is the hard work of many scientific researchers. The co-lead authors of the paper are graduate students Canran Wang and Kexin Fan from the California Institute of Technology. Other authors from the California Institute of Technology include Jose A. Lasalde-Ramirez, Wenzheng Heng, Jihong Min (PhD, Class of 2024), Samuel A. Solomon, Jiahong Li, Hong Han, Guangmu Jin, Suying Shen, and Alex Seder; former graduate student Minqiang Wang and Ehsan Shirzaei Sani, who is currently working at the University of Central Florida, also made important contributions to the research during their time at the California Institute of Technology. Authors from the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California include Chia-Ding Shih (also from Casa Colina Hospital and Healthcare Center in Pomona, California) and David Armstrong.

The research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the American Cancer Society, the Army Research Office, the U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity, and the Heritage Medical Research Institute. Caltech's Kavli Nanoscience Institute provided critical support and infrastructure for the research.

With the successful development of iCares' smart bandages, the treatment prospects for patients with chronic wounds have become brighter. In the future, this innovative technology is expected to be widely used in clinical practice, bringing benefits to more patients and promoting the field of chronic wound treatment to a new stage of development.

Source: Caltech

Journal Reference: Wang, C. et al. (2025) A microfluidic wearable device for exudate management and analysis in human chronic wounds. Science Translational Medicine. doi.org /10.1126 /scitranslmed.adt0882.