For much of his childhood, Simiao Niu was troubled by psoriasis, a chronic, often painful skin condition, mostly on his arms. Sometimes, the prescribed ointment worked and treated the inflamed, red areas produced by the disease. But he was never sure if he was using enough, whether the skin irritation was healing and when he should stop treatment.
Years later, as an engineer on the team at Apple Inc. that devised the electronics in Apple watches monitoring heart rhythm, Niu had a revelation: Could a similar wearable electronic device be developed to treat skin ailments such as psoriasis and provide patients with continuous feedback? Now, Niu, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering in the School of Engineering at Rutgers-New Brunswick, has played a crucial role in the development of the kind of device that he dreamed of: a unique prototype of what he and his research collaborators are calling a “living bioelectronic” designed to treat psoriasis.
Describing the advance in Science magazine, Niu and collaborators, including scientists at the University of Chicago led by Bozhi Tian and Columbia University, reported developing a patch – a combination of advanced electronics, living cells and hydrogel – that is showing efficacy in experiments in mice. To read the full story.