Scientists in the US have developed a mouthguard sensor that could be used to monitor metabolites in saliva to provide real-time information on the health status of the wearer. 
Real-time health monitoring is an attractive goal for biomedical, sport and military fields. A range of sensors have been developed that monitor physical signs such as heart rate, but recently interest has moved to detecting biomarkers non-invasively in body fluids to obtain more detailed information.
Saliva is an easily obtainable body fluid and contains analytes that closely correlate to those of blood, providing a good indication of metabolism and hormone levels. Previous saliva sensors have included dental tattoos and dentures but the new mouthguard sensor from Joseph Wang and colleagues at the University of California, San Diego, is much less invasive.
To read the full article by Harriet Brewerton, please go to Chemistry World.
Non-invasive mouthguard biosensor for continuous salivary monitoring of metabolites
Jayoung Kim, Gabriela Valdés-Ramírez, Amay J. Bandodkar, Wenzhao Jia, Alexandra G. Martinez, Julian Ramírez, Patrick Mercier and Joseph Wang
Analyst, 2014, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C3AN02359A, Paper
