VitalEdge: A Novel Non-Invasive Quadruple Biosensor and Health Risk Evaluation System for Early Disease Screening

Overview

Metabolic disorders and malnutrition remain critical health concerns, often undiagnosed due to invasive, costly, and inaccessible testing methods. VitalEdge is a novel non-invasive biosensor that detects concentrations of testosterone, glucose, vitamin C, and lactate from a single saliva sample, enabling early diagnosis of prediabetes, PCOS, & scurvy, among others. The biosensor utilizes electrospinning, producing a scaffold embedded with nanofibers of biochemical-reagents shaped into test strips. Each biomarker undergoes a distinct colorimetric-reaction: testosterone forms a red-pink complex, glucose changes from yellow to brown, vitamin-C shifts from blue to colorless, and lactate changes from colorless to blue. The 3D-printed sensor, shaped like a '+' sign, has each arm (6.3*2.0 cm) dedicated to a biomarker. A 5 cm³ diluted saliva solution is dropped into the central dropper-zone, from where engineered microfluidic-channels (5.2*0.4 cm) distribute it evenly across the test strips. A Health Risk Evaluation System (algorithm) then analyzes the colorimetric reaction in real-time, extracting the hue-values, comparing them to standard-curves, and providing instant biomarker-levels along with disease-risk insights. Our pilot studies demonstrated 96% accuracy compared to ELISA and HPLC, with specificity (95.2%), sensitivity (96.1%), repeatability (98.6%), and reproducibility (94.3%). The device also identified prediabetes and nutritional deficiencies in participants, which were later confirmed by lab tests enabling timely intervention. VitalEdge presents a scalable, cost-effective, and user-friendly diagnostic tool for large-scale screening, alleviating the burden on primary healthcare centers while transforming proactive health monitoring and preventive care.

Competition history

• ISEF 2025 Translational Medical Science · Entry TMED009T

Resources

• ISEF abstract page ↗

Related projects

Closest projects by meaning, across every fair and year in the corpus.