SBIR-STTR Award

The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is through providing a wearable alcohol monitoring device to the general population which will lead to a better awareness about alcohol consumption, and ultimately enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce burden of illness and disability. Incautious alcohol use causes health and social problems that either manifest over time due to sustained drinking (e.g., heart disease, cancer, liver disease, diabetes, etc.), or are short term effects of acute intoxication and/or impaired decision-making (e.g., motor vehicle crashes, violence, etc.). Excessive alcohol use led to approximately 88,000 deaths per year in the United States from 2006-2010 and in 2006 alone cost the economy approximately $224 billion. In light of the above social impact, the proposed graphene based wearable alcohol monitoring device addresses the urgent need to implement health approaches to reduce the loss of life and the huge economic costs that result from excessive drinking. In fact, the growing need for personalized health-care is highlighted by the estimated market size of $19 billion for wearable biosensors by 2018, pointing towards the potential commercial opportunity for self-monitoring alcohol sensors as well.

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project addresses the unmet need for a small, light, unobtrusive, convenient-to-use alcohol sensor for real-time self-monitoring of alcohol consumption. Excessive alcohol consumption is a health risk behavior and the fourth leading preventable cause of death in the United States. Most strategies to improve safe drinking rely on obtaining accurate and timely information about alcohol consumption; these include self-report of number and timing of drinks, breathalyzers, blood analysis by lab, and wearable devices. Wearable alcohol monitors have clear advantages in terms of accuracy and feasibility compared to other methods for self-monitoring. However, current wearable devices for alcohol monitoring are bulky, inconvenient to use, obtrusive, and do not provide consistent, real-time data on the level of intoxication. In this Phase I SBIR study, a graphene based nanoelectronic wearable sensor will be developed for real-time alcohol monitoring using the vapors transpiring through the skin. The graphene sensors will be tested on recruited adult volunteers and benchmarked with standard breathalyzer readings. Good correlation between the graphene sensor and a breathalyzer will confirm the technical and commercial feasibility of our proposed project leading to a Phase II SBIR proposal.

In this NIH SBIR Phase II project, Arborsense will continue to develop a discreet standalone graphene nanoelectronic transdermal alcohol sensor with integrated electronics to collect sweat alcohol readings continuously and in real-time and transmit it to a mobile app. Excessive alcohol consumption is the fourth leading preventable cause of death in the US. It led to around 88,000 deaths per year in the US from 2006-2010 and in 2006 alone cost the economy around $224 billion. Arborsense’s wearable alcohol monitoring device will lead to a better awareness about alcohol consumption amongst general population and will enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce illness and disability. Arborsense received an NSF Phase I SBIR grant (NSF: IIP-1548317) in January 2016 with which we achieved the stated Phase I goals and milestones of: (1) fabrication and assembly of graphene alcohol sensors on a flexible polymer backing; (2) the graphene sensor capability in detecting alcohol in sweat and calibration of sensors’ alcohol detection responsivity; and (3) test sensors’ feasibility and reliability on human volunteers, benchmarking against breathalyzer readings. Based on these results, in this NIH Phase II project Arborsense aims to achieve standalone sensor modules which are accurate (range?0.02% BAC), discreet (watch/wrist-band), light (~100g), cost-effective (~$100), and hands-free (Bluetooth connectivity). The modules will have integrated self-calibration electronics and Bluetooth transceiver to transmit data wirelessly to a mobile or tablet. In Phase II, Arborsense will collaborate with the University of Michigan to develop, test, calibrate, and benchmark sensor modules with the stated performance metrics. The graphene sensors will be fabricated on flexible polymer substrate, encapsulated with protective membranes, stacked with electronic circuity and a rechargeable battery, and enclosed in a discreet housing. The modules will first be calibrated in extensive performance tests in lab, and then tested on human volunteers while being benchmarked with a police grade breathalyzer. Good correlation between our sensor and breathalyzer will confirm the technical and commercial feasibility of our sensors, which can then be shipped to early-adopters, pitched to investors, and ultimately introduced for sales. We will also develop an interactive phone app and study ways of providing information to users about intoxication to maximize the benefits of self-monitoring.

Public Health Relevance Statement:
Project Narrative Excessive alcohol consumption is a health risk behavior and the fourth leading preventable cause of death in the United States. The proposed project will develop a wearable alcohol nanobiosensor that continuously monitors transdermal alcohol vapors to estimate blood alcohol content. The proposed device addresses the unmet need for a small, light, unobtrusive, non-invasive, convenient-to-use real-time sensor for self-monitoring of alcohol consumption.

Project Terms:
Address; Alcohol consumption; alcohol involvement; alcohol monitoring; alcohol testing; alcohol use disorder; Alcohols; Area; Awareness; Back; base; Benchmarking; binge drinker; Biosensor; Blood; Blood alcohol level measurement; burden of illness; Calibration; Cause of Death; Cessation of life; commercialization; cost; cost effective; Data; design; Detection; Devices; Diagnosis; disability; drinking; drug testing; Electronics; Encapsulated; Environment; Ethnic Origin; Feasibility Studies; field study; flexibility; Food; Future; Gender; General Population; Goals; Grant; graphene; Hand; Health; healthy lifestyle; Heavy Drinking; Housing; Human; Human Volunteers; Humidity; Impairment; improved; Individual; Intoxication; Ketones; Learning; Life; Light; Location; loss of function; loved ones; Membrane; Methods; Michigan; mobile application; Monitor; monitoring device; nanobiosensor; nanoelectronics; operation; Parents; Patient Self-Report; Performance; performance tests; personalized health care; Phase; Phonation; Police; Polymers; Population; preference; Price; Process; Race; Randomized; Reading; Recruitment Activity; Risk Behaviors; Sales; scale up; sensor; Ships; Skin; Small Business Innovation Research Grant; social stigma; Structure; Substance Abuse Detection; Sweat; Tablets; Telephone; Temperature; Testing; Time; Uncertainty; United States; United States National Institutes of Health; Universities; vapor; Vehicle crash; volunteer; Wireless Technology; Work; Wrist