10 Mar UW Researcher Awarded Major Grant for Biosensing
Dr. Tueng T. Shen
ARPA-H has awarded a multi-institutional team to develop a tiny wireless sensor in the tear duct to monitor important biomarkers for health.
The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA‑H) has announced a significant award to University of Washington to develop and validate an ultra‑miniaturized wireless biosensor designed for placement in the tear duct as part of a multi‑institutional team including Massachusetts Institute of Technology (lead institute), the University of Washington, and Northwestern University. Dr. Tueng T. Shen, a clinician‑engineer, is the UW lead investigator of the project. The purpose of the tiny sensor is to continuously measure health biomarkers on the surface of the eye—pioneering a new way to access molecular health information non‑invasively.
“Monitoring health with a device in the tear duct could have major implications for future health monitoring in other parts of the body,”
says Dr. Shen who is also an investigator in the newly established Kren Engineering‑based Medicine Initiative (KEMi) at UW. “This is precisely the type of collaborative model that KEMi seeks to catalyze for the future of health innovation.”
ARPA-H is a new mechanism from the federal government to fund “high-risk, high-reward” projects in an efficient way, and is different from conventional funding mechanisms: the risk is financial, the reward is the ability to drive medical breakthroughs with high impact potential. The Institute of Translational Health Sciences (ITHS) supported Dr. Shen in pursuit of this award.
Read full press release here.
