Researchers help develop sensor to detect PTSD

Researchers in the University of Tennessee, Knoxville’s Tickle College of Engineering and UT Institute of Agriculture are partnering with technology development firm CFD Research Corporation to create a groundbreaking device that uses biomarkers in the blood to diagnose post-traumatic stress disorder and other complex conditions.

About 6% of Americans — including nearly 30% of military veterans who experienced combat, natural disasters and other traumatic events — have experienced PTSD, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Current methods for diagnosing the disorder are highly subjective, relying on a patient’s ability and willingness to report their symptoms and address past trauma.

“With PTSD, diagnosis is complicated. Every patient’s condition is different,” said Jayne Wu, a professor in the Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Wu and Shigetoshi Eda, a professor in the School of Natural Resources, learned to detect PTSD in humans using a handheld biosensor they originally developed to help dairy farmers quickly diagnose diseases affecting their herds. The device uses AC electrokinetics-integrated capacitive, or AiCAP, a technology the researchers created that applies a specific AC signal to move bioparticles toward sensors that identify disease-causing microbes.

Since then, Wu and Eda have continued working on the biosensor. The patented system can now identify a wide array of biomarkers to diagnose numerous diseases ranging from bovine tuberculosis to human influenza.

Innovation Through Collaboration

CFD Research reached out to Wu and Eda in 2023. The company was working with the U.S. military to create a low-cost, minimally invasive diagnostic tool for PTSD. The research team recognized that the AiCAP biosensor array, with its unique ability to identify numerous biomarkers simultaneously, could provide a solution.

Unlike some illnesses such as the flu that have a single diagnostic biomarker, PTSD is associated with many biomarkers, including proteins, fats, carbohydrates and nucleic acids like DNA. Using AiCAP technology, Wu and Eda worked with CFD Research researcher David Gaddes to develop a sensor that can identify more than a dozen PTSD-related biomarkers from a single blood sample.

“Usually, you need a different detector for each type of biomarker,” Eda said. “Jayne’s approach within AiCAP allows you to detect different types of biomarkers using a single device.”

The ability to identify multiple biomarkers with a single device is a major boost to multiomics, a scientific approach that looks at different types of biological data simultaneously to get a complete picture of how living organisms function.

“We’re hoping that this would be the first multiomic point-of-care biosensor,” Gaddes said. “That means it’s something that’s very easy for a doctor to run and operate — they put a sample in, they get an answer out.”

With that in mind, the researchers are developing a user-friendly display system for the device that will simplify data interpretation, aiding early intervention by enabling family physicians to make diagnoses without relying on offsite specialists. The team aims to make the new device widely accessible by keeping it small, portable and affordable.

Advancing Personalized Medicine

The researchers are working toward obtaining approval for the device from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and expanding the technology to diagnose other conditions such as organ damage, cancer and sepsis. They say the partnership between the university and CFD Research is instrumental for tailoring AiCAP technology to human medical settings and scaling production so the device can be deployed quickly once it has FDA approval.

“It’s very valuable for industry and university researchers to collaborate,” Gaddes said. “University researchers are coming up with technologies that are new, or have new applications, and demonstrating that they work. Companies like CFD Research can then come in and develop the technology into an actual product.”

Gaddes presented the team’s device at the Military Health System Research Symposium in Orlando, Florida, in October 2024. He said it was very well received, with multiple attendees asking to help prototype it or be alerted as soon as it becomes commercially available.

“What I’m excited about on this particular project is the ability to do fast multiomic sensing,” said Gaddes. “From a less technological standpoint, I’m excited about making a product which improves the diagnoses of complex diseases like PTSD.”

Wu said that although further research is needed to establish clear correlations between biomarkers and treatment plans, “PTSD is a great example to demonstrate the potential benefits of our sensor array in furthering personalized medicine. Multiomics sensing can promote holistic treatment approaches for PTSD by providing a biological foundation to tailor and optimize integrative whole-person care.”