Every day, millions of kidney patients around the world undergo blood tests or provide urine samples. Startup DXcrete aims to end that tedious routine with a smart patch that continuously analyzes sweat and extracts a wealth of health information from it. Founder and TU/e researcher Emma Moonen: âWith our technology, patients no longer have to visit the hospital for every test and we can monitor them continuously. This way we can identify any deterioration much sooner and hopefully drastic interventions will be less often necessary.â
In her office, Emma Moonen (28) slides something across the table that looks like a semi-transparent patch with a USB connector attached. âThis is the BEA,â she says, holding the tiny device up to the light. âA new way to collect and analyze sweat, even when you hardly perspire.â
Moonen earned her PhD with honors in March 2024 at TU/eâs Department of Mechanical Engineering and co-founded DXcrete together with former Philips engineer Timon Grob. Their mission: to extract vital health information from patientsâ sweat in a painless, comfortable, and continuous way.
âSweat is 99 percent water, but that remaining one percent contains a treasure trove of information about one's health,â Moonen says enthusiastically. âUntil now, weâve relied on urine or blood samples for that data. Itâs time-consuming, uncomfortable, and only gives a snapshot. Our method is pain-free, continuous, and has a high degree of reliability.â
Moving very tiny droplets with electric fields
âOur device can collect and move nanoliter-sized droplets of sweat, about a billionth of a liter, toward integrated sensors,â she says. âFor comparison: a single drop of water contains about 50,000 nanoliters, depending on its size.â The underlying technology is called electrowetting, a method that uses electric fields to move droplets of liquid. In this case they get moved toward a tiny reservoir where measurements are taken.
More information
Check the webpage.Â