Epicore Biosystems Partners with 3M, Innovize to Scale Development of Sweat-Sensing Wearables

Epicore Biosystems announced a new collaboration with 3M’s Health Care Business, a manufacturer and distributor of medical products and solutions, and Innovize Inc., a custom medical device manufacturer. Leveraging 3M’s skin-interfacing materials and Innovize’s manufacturing capabilities, Epicore Biosystems will further scale its portfolio of advanced wearable hydration solutions.

The global supply chain continues to experience disruptions following the pandemic and amid the increase in climate-related issues such as extreme weather, fires, and floods. While some sectors are less likely to be impacted by future supply chain issues, it is critical for companies in industries like healthcare to avoid logistical bottlenecks that could affect the development and delivery of medical devices.

Epicore Biosystems has built a network of domestic partners to effectively deploy its sweat-sensing technology as rising temperatures intensify the risk of dehydration among athletes and industrial workers in high-heat environments.

“Our collaboration with 3M and Innovize ensures that Epicore Biosystems has a strong domestic production infrastructure,” said Jeffrey Model, chief product officer and co-founder at Epicore Biosystems. “We’re thrilled to collaborate with material science and manufacturing powerhouses as we expand our suite of clinically-validated, sweat-sensing products and pave the way for the future of noninvasive health tracking wearables.”

Epicore Biosystems develops advanced wearable solutions that measure sweat biometrics and provide customized recovery insights about hydration, including sweat rate, total sweat loss, electrolyte concentrations, bioanalyte loss, skin temperature, and motion — all captured with an unobtrusive wearable sweat sensor, analyzed through a proprietary cloud engine, and delivered directly to the wearer through a smartphone application and cloud portal.

Its key differentiators include flexible physical properties that enable seamless integration on the body, multimodal data streams that enable direct measurements of hydration, stress, and nutrition status, and low-cost designs that do not require cleaning or external charging stations.

“Within 3M, we’re on a mission to improve lives and solve the world’s toughest challenges through science, including better, smarter, safer healthcare solutions. Working with Epicore Biosystems we can do exactly that,” said Chad Reed, director, 3M Medical Device Solutions. “We’re proud to provide more than a half dozen medical-grade products for Epicore Biosystems’ suite of wearable microfluidic solutions in our commitment to innovation that addresses real-world problems in the healthcare, wellness, and sports performance spheres.”

Epicore Biosystems’ product development incorporates materials and design strategies created in collaboration with Innovize to support high volume manufacturing. Innovize employs a newspaper printing-like process known as the roll-to-roll (R2R) method to produce microfluidic structures at high throughput.

R2R is an effective method for manufacturing Epicore Biosystems’ products as it processes thin polymeric sheets of off-the-shelf materials from 3M and other material suppliers into functional microfluidic components and finished products.

“From materials selection to process development and high-volume production, Innovize is dedicated to collaborating with partners who are at the forefront of innovation in their respective industries,” said Dave Jessen, owner and vice president of sales and marketing at Innovize. “We’re excited to be part of the disruption Epicore Biosystems is igniting in the wearables sector and look forward to growing our partnership as we continue executing on its personalized hydration management products.”

Epicore Biosystems’ suite of sweat-sensing wearables includes the Gx Sweat Patch created in partnership with PepsiCo and Gatorade, the Discovery Patch® Sweat Collection System, and the Connected Hydration wearable hydration sensor and mobile application tailored for industrial athletes and sports.

Epicore Biosystems’ technology has been developed and tested with leading sports physiology labs and research hospitals, including the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, University of Connecticut Korey Stringer Institute, University of Massachusetts Amherst Center for Human Health and Performance, and the Gatorade Sports Science Institute.