Past Project
Micro-Na
2021 / 2022
About
The work, in plain language.
Hyponatremia, an abnormally low blood sodium level, affects an estimated 15 to 30 percent of hospitalized patients and endurance athletes and can cause headaches, confusion, seizures, or coma. Current diagnosis relies on invasive blood draws and urine tests, which are uncomfortable, slow, and resource-intensive.
Micro-Na, a collaboration with the Brambilla laboratory at Université de Montréal, designed a hydrogel microneedle patch that absorbs interstitial fluid through microscopic needles. The patch was loaded with CoroNa Green, a sodium-sensitive fluorophore, and produced a fluorescent signal proportional to sodium concentration.
Validation on pig skin confirmed that patches applied to samples with higher sodium showed greater fluorescence intensity, opening the door to a minimally invasive, low-cost alternative to blood draws.
Project archive
Images from the original project page.
These images are preserved in the same order as the legacy McGill BioDesign page.
View the original project pageMicro-Na project archive, image 1 of 6.
1 / 6
What we did
Bench-tested, presented, shipped.
- Validated CoroNa Green selectivity and sensitivity for sodium in interstitial fluid mimics.
- Fabricated swelling hydrogel microneedle patches using a 60-second fluorophore load.
- Demonstrated dose-response behavior on pig skin samples.
Team
Led by.
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