Wearable skin patch that tracks uric acid and metabolites for people with gout
Cutaneous uric acid and metabolite monitoring to improve individual response to pharmaceutical and dietary treatment in patients with gout
A wearable skin patch will measure uric acid and other metabolites around meals to help people with gout make better diet and medication choices.
Quick facts
| Grant type | NIH-funded research |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | California Institute of Technology NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Pasadena, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11383658 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
You would wear a small skin patch that reads uric acid and other metabolites in your sweat before and after meals. The patch sends results to an easy-to-use app so you can see how food and medicines affect your uric acid over time. Researchers will test these enhancements in a randomized 10-week trial including people with gout who are taking or not taking urate-lowering medicines. The team will expand which metabolites are tracked and make the patch work for morning and evening meals to see if real-time feedback improves diet, medication choices, and metabolic outcomes.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: Ideal candidates are adults with gout, age 21 or older, whether they are currently taking urate-lowering therapy or not.
Not a fit: People without gout or those unwilling or unable to wear a skin patch regularly are unlikely to benefit from this project.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this could help people with gout make better diet and medication choices and lower their uric acid without repeated blood draws.
How similar studies have performed: Similar wearable uric acid sensors have shown strong correlation with blood urate, but using them to guide diet and medication over weeks is a newer approach.
Where this research is happening
Pasadena, United States
- California Institute of Technology — Pasadena, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Gao, Wei — California Institute of Technology
- Study coordinator: Gao, Wei
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.