title: Conformal piezoelectric systems for clinical and experimental characterization of soft tissue biomechanics.
abstract: Mechanical assessment of soft biological tissues and organs has broad relevance in clinical diagnosis and treatment of disease. Existing characterization methods are invasive, lack microscale spatial resolution, and are tailored only for specific regions of the body under quasi-static conditions. Here, we develop conformal and piezoelectric devices that enable in vivo measurements of soft tissue viscoelasticity in the near-surface regions of the epidermis. These systems achieve conformal contact with the underlying complex topography and texture of the targeted skin, as well as other organ surfaces, under both quasi-static and dynamic conditions. Experimental and theoretical characterization of the responses of piezoelectric actuator-sensor pairs laminated on a variety of soft biological tissues and organ systems in animal models provide information on the operation of the devices. Studies on human subjects establish the clinical significance of these devices for rapid and non-invasive characterization of skin mechanical properties.
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA [2] Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.
authors.forename: Canan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dagdeviren
authors.affiliation: 1] State Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control of Mechanical Structures, Nanjing University of Aeronautics &Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China [2] Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA [3] Department of Mechanical Engineering, Center for Engineering and Health and Skin Disease Research Center, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA [2] Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.
authors.forename: Pauline
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Joe
authors.affiliation: MC10 Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts 02140, USA.
authors.forename: Roozbeh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ghaffari
authors.affiliation: L'Oreal R&I Incubator, Department of Research and Innovation, Clark, New Jersey 07066, USA.
authors.forename: Guive
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Balooch
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA [2] Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.
authors.forename: Karan
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Usgaonkar
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.
authors.forename: Onur
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Gur
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine &Sarver Heart Center, The University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85724, USA.
authors.forename: Phat L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Tran
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine &Sarver Heart Center, The University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85724, USA.
authors.forename: Jessi R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Crosby
authors.affiliation: Institute for Materials Science and Max Bergmann Center of Biomaterials, TU Dresden, 01062 Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: Marcin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Meyer
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA [2] Department of Mechanical Engineering, Center for Engineering and Health and Skin Disease Research Center, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA [3] Center for Mechanics and Materials, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
authors.forename: Yewang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Su
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA [2] Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chad Webb
authors.affiliation: Academy Dermatologist Group Ltd, Tucson, Arizona 85710, USA.
authors.forename: Andrew S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Tedesco
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Medicine &Sarver Heart Center, The University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85724, USA [2] Department of BioMedical Engineering, The University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85724, USA.
authors.forename: Marvin J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Slepian
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA [2] Department of Mechanical Engineering, Center for Engineering and Health and Skin Disease Research Center, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA.
authors.forename: Yonggang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA [2] Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA [3] Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA [4] Department of Chemistry and Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.
authors.forename: John A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Rogers
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000818:Animals; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D002417:Cattle; D004548:Elasticity; D004594:Electrophysiology / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015603:Keratinocytes / Q000166:cytology; D008297:Male; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000379:methods; D012867:Skin / Q000473:pathology*; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D014783:Viscosity