CircTrek: A wearable device for real-time monitoring of circulating cells in the body

24th April 2025

Timing : 1 pm ET

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For a list of all talks at the NanoBio seminar Series Spring'25, see here


Continuous monitoring of circulating cells can transform various medical fields—spanning screening, diagnosis, and treatment—by enabling real-time tracking of clinically important cell populations in the blood. However, current blood drawing-based methods are constrained by low sampling frequency, limited volumes, and risks of cell degradation, leading to incomplete or inaccurate representations of dynamic biological states. In vivo flow cytometry (IVFC) was developed to address some of these limitations by detecting cell responses to laser illumination in circulation. However, its bulky and transmissive setup inherently restricts it to discontinuous operation. This discontinuous monitoring often results in missed critical treatment windows and remains a major obstacle to early disease detection and real-time treatment monitoring.

In this talk, Kyuho presents CircTrek, a wearable device that—for the first time—enables continuous, real-time monitoring of circulating cells at single-cell resolution in a compact, smartwatch-sized form factor. Designed to operate with fluorescent labeling methods already approved for human use, CircTrek is readily translatable to a wide range of clinical applications. To meet the dual demands of high sensitivity and miniaturization, all system components—including optical, mechanical, and electronic elements—were custom designed and optimized. The device uses focused, pulsed laser excitation and layered signal filtering to enhance signal-to-noise ratio, and its performance was validated using experimental models of blood flow and light-tissue interaction. Safety and reliability were further confirmed through simulations and mathematical modeling. CircTrek represents a new paradigm in medical diagnostics and patient care, offering continuous cellular-level insights that can enable earlier detection, real-time therapeutic monitoring, and personalized treatment interventions.



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Kyuho Jang
MIT Media Lab
Kyuho Jang is a PhD candidate in the Nano-Cybernetic Biotrek group at the MIT Media Lab, where he also earned his Master of Science. He is a recipient of the MIT Presidential Fellowship, awarded to the most outstanding PhD candidates across the Institute. Prior to joining MIT, he completed his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Materials Science and Engineering at Seoul National University. His current research integrates electronics and synthetic biology to develop next-generation technologies for biointerfacing.