# Rapid and non-invasive device for drug detection through sweat

> **NIH NIH R44** · ARBORSENSE, INC. · 2022 · $868,719

## Abstract

Project Summary
In this NIH SBIR Phase II project, Arborsense will continue its successful line of work to develop a portable
sweat-based screening device to address the unmet need for a rapid, non-invasive, and quantitative device for
detection of drugs of abuse at point-of-need. The use and abuse of potentially addictive substances has become
a national crisis. The tremendous social (100,000 deaths reported by CDC between April 2020 and April 2021)
and economic ($400B annually in healthcare, work productivity, and crime) costs related to the substance abuse
and misuse call for an urgent focus on implementing and supporting health approaches to reduce the loss of life
and financial burden inflicted. Regular drug-use testing and monitoring are key components of the management
strategies to control this epidemic. Within most settings whether clinical, court-ordered, treatment centers,
workplace monitoring, or roadside testing, having reliable and timely data on drug use is essential. However, the
available strategies to detect drug use which rely on testing blood, urine, saliva, hair, breath, and sweat, are
plagued by cumbersome collection methods and significant delays in receiving test results, thus hampering the
ability to provide up-to-date objective data on recent drug use. Based on the preliminary study on rapid and
quantitative detection of 4 drugs/opioids in artificial sweat, Arborsense received a NIDA Phase I SBIR (R43
DA052941) award. In Phase I, we: (1) expanded the panel to 5th drug - Buprenorphine, (2) optimized the sweat
analysis protocol, (3) developed sweat generation and sweat collection modules, and (4) validated the detector
in a human subjects’ study (n=16) benchmarking it with a urine drug screen where we demonstrated point-of-
need generation (5 minutes) and collection (15 minutes) of 20 µL of sweat and subsequent detection (20 minutes)
of 5 drugs with detection limits of 1-3 ng/mL. Based on these results, in Phase II Arborsense will further optimize
the overall device design and workflow to develop a truly portable robust prototype and benchmark it with the
industry-standard LC-MS (liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry) in a large-scale human
subjects’ study (n=50). Specifically, we will reduce the size of the sweat generator to a hand-held unit and sweat
detector to a shoebox size unit. We will automate the microfluidic flow to eliminate mechanical moving parts and
optimize the unit to target a start-to-finish time of 25 minutes. The overall design will also reduce multiple manual
touchpoints for ease-of-operation. In Phase II, Arborsense will collaborate with Biomedical Engineering and
Department of Psychiatry at University of Michigan to design, co-develop, and validate the portable sweat-based
detector in a large-scale human study. We will also engage with our strategic industry partners during the design
process to incorporate features necessary for market acceptance. Good correspondence between our detec...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10544121
- **Project number:** 2R44DA052941-02
- **Recipient organization:** ARBORSENSE, INC.
- **Principal Investigator:** Girish Kulkarni
- **Activity code:** R44 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $868,719
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 2020-09-30 → 2024-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10544121

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10544121, Rapid and non-invasive device for drug detection through sweat (2R44DA052941-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10544121. Licensed CC0.

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