Wearables that sense inflammation, metabolism, and fatigue

MESH: Multimodal Estimators for Sensing Health

NIH-funded research New York University · NIH-11179350

This project builds smart algorithms to read signals from wearable monitors so people can track inflammation, metabolism, fatigue, and internal body awareness.

Quick facts

Grant typeNIH-funded research
Study typeNIH-funded research
Funding institutionNew York University NIH-funded
Lab location1 site (New York, United States)
Project IDNIH-11179350 on NIH RePORTER

What this research studies

You may be asked to wear portable physiological monitors that record signals such as heart rate, movement, eye activity, and other biosignals while clinical data and biological samples (like hormone or cytokine measures) are collected. Researchers will apply system-theoretic and computational tools to find pulsatile patterns in those signals and connect them to hidden health states such as inflammation, metabolic change, and fatigue. Over time they aim to train and validate algorithms that infer these states from wearable data and create a toolkit researchers and clinicians can use. The work highlights situations where stress, medications, or surgery (including cardiac surgery) alter signaling and recovery.

Who could benefit from this research

Good fit: Ideal candidates include people recovering from surgery (for example cardiac surgery), patients with inflammatory or metabolic concerns, or volunteers willing to wear monitoring devices and provide clinical data or samples.

Not a fit: People without conditions related to inflammation, metabolism, or fatigue, those unwilling or unable to wear devices, or those seeking immediate therapeutic benefits may not gain direct benefit from this research.

Why it matters

Potential benefit: If successful, this could help patients and clinicians detect and monitor invisible changes like inflammation or fatigue remotely to guide recovery and treatment decisions.

How similar studies have performed: Wearable monitoring has shown promise for tracking heart rate, sleep, and glucose trends, but inferring hormones and cytokines from wearables is largely novel and not yet proven.

Where this research is happening

New York, United States

Researchers

About this research

  1. This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
  2. Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
  3. For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.
Last reviewed 2026-06-13 by the Find a Trial editorial team. Information on this page is for educational purposes and is not medical advice. Always consult qualified healthcare professionals about clinical trial participation.