At a Glance
- UCLA researchers have developed a new sensor that continuously tracks metabolites in real-time. This sensor offers dynamic insights into human health beyond traditional lab tests, which capture only isolated snapshots.
- The technology, called tandem metabolic reaction-based sensors, mimics the body’s natural biochemical reactions and uses carbon nanotubes to generate electrical signals that reflect the concentration of over 800 metabolites.
- Tested on sweat and saliva from people with epilepsy and diabetes, the sensors detected crucial compounds, including those from gut bacteria, that may influence brain health and neurological conditions.
- This innovation enables real-time monitoring of how metabolic pathways respond to treatments, potentially transforming drug development and personalizing healthcare by providing immediate feedback on biochemical changes.
- The technology shows promise for studying the gut-brain connection, offering new ways to explore how gut-derived compounds influence inflammation, mental health, and chronic diseases through continuous biological tracking.
A team of researchers from UCLA has developed a new sensor technology that can continuously monitor a wide range of metabolites in the human body, providing real-time health data. Metabolites are small molecules involved in critical biological processes such as energy production and cell regulation. Tracking these metabolites is essential for understanding health, diagnosing diseases, and personalizing treatments. This new sensor technology, based on natural metabolic processes, represents a significant advancement in monitoring human health without relying on traditional lab tests, which provide only snapshots of a person’s health at one moment.
The innovative technology, tandem metabolic reaction-based (TMR) sensors, mimics the biochemical reactions that occur in the body. These sensors use single-wall carbon nanotubes, tiny cylinders that help perform reactions using enzymes and helper molecules called cofactors. These reactions generate an electrical signal, which is measured to determine the levels of different metabolites. By incorporating enzymes and cofactors, the sensors can detect over 800 metabolites, making them much more versatile than traditional sensors that typically measure just one or a few metabolites.
In their experiments, the researchers tested the sensors on sweat and saliva samples from individuals with epilepsy and diabetes-related conditions. They could also detect metabolites produced by gut bacteria that could affect the brain and cause neurological issues if they accumulate. The technology is so sensitive that it can continuously monitor these compounds, which could revolutionize how we track health conditions and diseases. The sensors also offer the potential for use in drug development, allowing scientists to see how different treatments affect metabolic pathways in real time.
The team believes this technology could be particularly helpful in studying the gut-brain connection, which is still not fully understood. The sensors could track how metabolites from the gut influence brain health, helping researchers explore how these compounds affect conditions like inflammation, mental health, and chronic diseases. This continuous, real-time monitoring could open new ways to diagnose and treat various health conditions, from metabolic disorders to neurological diseases. The researchers are excited to develop this technology further to answer key questions in medical and biological research.
Further details about the new technology can be found in the team’s research paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
References
- Cheng, X., Li, Z., Zhu, J., Wang, J., Huang, R., Yu, L. W., Lin, S., Forman, S., Gromilina, E., Puri, S., Patel, P., Bahramian, M., Tan, J., Hojaiji, H., Jelinek, D., Voisin, L., Yu, K. B., Zhang, A., Ho, C., … Emaminejad, S. (2025). Tandem metabolic reaction–based sensors unlock in vivo metabolomics. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122(9), e2425526122. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2425526122
- California NanoSystems Institute. (2025, March 26). Sensor technology uses nature’s blueprint and machinery to monitor metabolism in body. EurekAlert!; California NanoSystems Institute. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1078347
