An Intelligent Skin Patch with Bio-Inspired Architectures for Diagnostics and Treatment

Recent advances in bio-inspired architectures have received attention as promising approaches with which to implement smart skin-interfacial devices for personalized healthcare. In situ skin diagnosis requires adaptable skin adherence and rapid capture of clinical biofluids. Here, we report a simple, all-in-one device consisting of bio-inspired architectures and hydrogels that can rapidly capture biofluids and conformally attach to skin for stable, real-time monitoring of health. Inspired by the male diving beetle, the skin patch achieves repeatable, enhanced, and multidirectional adhesion to human skin in dry/wet environments, revealing the role of the cavities in these architectures. The hydrogels within the microplungers instantaneously absorb liquids from the epidermis for enhanced adhesiveness and reversibly change color for visual indication of skin pH levels. In addition, our hybrid skin patch system demonstrated reversible and directional adhesion to the complex skin surface, while allowing the drug-containing hydrogel to be in ultra-intimate contact with the non-flat skin with hierarchical roughness. With the aid of diving beetle-inspired adhesive, this extraordinary conformal hydrogel interface provides an efficient strategy for the diagnostics and treatment of skin diseases.