QSI-TEAMS to fast-track medical device development

At a time when medical technology breakthroughs often stall long before reaching patients, Northwestern University’s Querrey Simpson Institute for Bioelectronics (QSIB) has become a striking exception. Led by world-renowned bioelectronics pioneer John A. Rogers, QSIB is a rare place where futuristic devices not only make headlines but also make it into hospitals, clinics and patient homes around the world.

Now, QSIB — united with several other Northwestern centers and institutes — will extend that reach even further.

To accelerate the journey from innovative concepts to real-world clinical tools, Northwestern is launching a new institute dedicated entirely to translation. Announced last month, the new Querrey Simpson Institute for Translational Engineering for Advanced Medical Systems (QSI-TEAMS) aims to tackle medicine’s most stubborn bottleneck — the daunting, expensive gap between a promising lab-built prototype with an initial proof-of-concept publication and a patient-ready device with regulatory approvals and quantified patient-outcome benefits.

Supported by philanthropic funding from University Trustee Kimberly K. Querrey (’22, ’23 P), QSI-TEAMS is designed to help close that gap. And, in doing so, it will bring life-changing technologies to the people who need them — and fast.

“Our goal has always been simple — to create technologies that make a real difference in people’s lives,” said Rogers, director of QSIB. “But to do that, we must overcome the steepest part of the journey — the translation from engineering demonstrations to proven clinical tools. QSI-TEAMS will give us the ability to navigate that transition with intention and speed. By combining engineering rigor, clinical insights, collaborative approaches and scalable manufacturing capabilities, we will dramatically accelerate the path from discovery to patient care. As an endeavor within an academic environment, the process will involve human-subject studies at scales that enable publication in top medical journals and, at the same time, offer exceptional hands-on learning opportunities for students at all levels.”

Rogers, the Louis Simpson and Kimberly Querrey Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Biomedical Engineering and Neurological Surgery at the McCormick School of Engineering and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, will lead QSI-TEAMS alongside two co-directors. Tony Banks, QSIB’s director of engineering, will serve as QSI-TEAMS’ co-director of engineering research. Dr. Jessica Walter, a QSIB member and an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Feinberg, will serve as QSI-TEAMS’ co-director of clinical research.

“I’m thrilled for the launch of QSI-TEAMS — a powerful collaboration that brings together world-class engineers and clinicians to close the most challenging gap in medicine — the leap from discovery to patient care,” Banks said. “By accelerating the scale-up of breakthrough medical devices through safe, state-of-the-art production, this institute will deliver transformative solutions where they matter most — in real-world clinical settings.”

“As a physician-scientist, there is no greater honor than to bring breakthroughs in technology and engineering back to the bedside,” Walter said. “QSI-TEAMS is an incredible opportunity to define, build and launch these technologies, directly affecting patients in our own Northwestern community and all around the world.”

Designed as a collaboration hub, QSI-TEAMS will streamline, prioritize and accelerate translational projects around breakthrough hardware technologies from QSIB, Northwestern Medicine, Northwestern Engineering, the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and Feinberg. The co-directors will work closely with Northwestern’s Innovation and New Ventures Office (INVO) and the Querrey InQbation Lab to identify projects with commercial potential, handle regulatory strategy, guide teams through early manufacturing and support startup formation.

And the work is already beginning. Even as QSI-TEAMS takes shape, its leaders have pinpointed several technologies that are ready to make the leap. These inaugural projects stand at the cusp of clinical translation and reflect the center’s strategic priorities.

“I am truly thrilled to witness the launch of these transformative QSI-TEAMS initiatives,” Querrey said. “They mark a bold step forward in redefining the landscape of biomedical engineering and unlocking innovations that will shape the future of human health. The launch of QSI-TEAMS represents a remarkable moment in our shared pursuit of scientific excellence. These transportive projects have the power to reshape the biomedical engineering landscape and accelerate breakthroughs that improve lives worldwide.”

The following six launch projects will engage in studies at clinically meaningful scales — a powerful precursor to the translational efforts that QSI-TEAMS is distinctly positioned to support. Each project draws from recently published technologies and initial demonstration experiments.

Listening to the lungs without a stethoscope

In collaboration with Northwestern Medicine chief of thoracic surgery Dr. Ankit Bharat, Rogers’ team developed soft, wearable devices that continuously track subtle sounds in the lungs. These miniaturized devices adhere to the skin across multiple regions of the body to create a comprehensive, non-invasive sensing network.

By simultaneously capturing sounds and correlating those real-time sounds to body processes, the devices spatially map how air flows into, through and out of the lungs as well as changes in cardiac rhythms and chest wall movements during resting and active states. This information could help diagnose and monitor the progression of respiratory and cardiac illnesses.

“I’m particularly excited because it allows surgeons and physicians like me to work with top-talent engineers to find solutions to problems that will have a positive impact on the health of our patients,” said Bharat, the Harold L. and Margaret N. Method Professor of Surgery at Feinberg.

Sensing skin’s secret messages

With Feinberg dermatologist Dr. Amy Paller, Rogers’ team developed the first wearable device for measuring gases emitted from — and absorbed by — the skin. By analyzing these gases, the device offers an entirely new way to assess skin health, including monitoring wounds, detecting infections, tracking hydration and quantifying exposure to harmful environmental chemicals.

While technologies to measure water vapor loss do exist, they are large, cumbersome machines that largely reside within hospital settings. The compact wearable device that has emerged from collaborative research at QSIB, on the other hand, is designed to help physicians monitor their patients remotely and empower individuals to take control of their own skin health at home.

“The new QSI-TEAMS will greatly facilitate progress by moving a variety of cutting-edge, skin-based devices that quantify impaired skin-barrier function, itch and other measures of dysfunction toward clinical adoption and mainstream use in our patients with skin disease,” said Paller, the Walter J. Hamlin Professor of Dermatology and chair of the Department of Dermatology at Feinberg. 

Monitoring kidneys with sweat

With University of Illinois-Chicago nephrologist Dr. Lorenzo Gallon (formerly at Feinberg), Rogers’ team is developing a wearable sticker that gently adheres to a patient’s skin to measure urea and creatinine in sweat. These concentrations in sweat correlate quantitatively with corresponding concentrations in blood, where they serve as important markers for kidney health in end-stage renal disease.

Wearable sweat sensors provide frequent data to track fluctuations in kidney health, a key advantage compared to the standard, single “snapshot” assessment that a blood draw provides. And because sweat sampling is painless and simple, patients can monitor trends over time without repeated visits to the clinic.

“The asymptomatic nature of chronic kidney disease and the reliance on blood-based biomarkers limit widespread screening and delay clinical intervention,” Gallon said. “The interrogation of sweat as a potential biofluid for diagnosing kidney disease could represent a paradigm shift in how we screen and monitor kidney health. This work will change our ability to screen for early kidney dysfunction and enable us to detect it early, allowing for effective intervention to prevent the progression of chronic kidney disease.”