Grant: Project Grant

Postoperative myocardial injury (PMI)-including heart attacks after surgery-is common and can be life-threatening. As the number of high-risk patients undergoing surgery increases, and as more surgical care shifts to outpatient settings, there is an urgent need for monitoring during the first 72 hours after surgery, when the risk of these events is highest. Cardiac troponin, a protein molecule tightly linked to myocardial injury, is central to the early detection of PMI and timely clinical intervention. However, current troponin testing depends on repeated blood draws by trained personnel and analysis using complex, costly methods, which limits monitoring to conventional healthcare settings. To address this gap, minimally invasive tools are needed to enable remote monitoring outside the hospital. We have developed the Protein Aptalyzer, a painless wearable platform that monitors protein biomarkers directly in skin interstitial fluid, eliminating the need for blood draws. In this proposal, we will generate the critical preclinical data needed to advance the Protein Aptalyzer toward first-in-human studies. Specifically, we will: (i) benchmark device performance against gold-standard point-of-care (non-wearable) assays for cardiac troponin; (ii) validate the technology in murine models of heart disease; and (iii) conduct biocompatibility testing to establish safety for end users.