{"id":376801,"date":"2025-08-27T05:16:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T05:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/376801\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T05:16:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T05:16:11","slug":"revolutionary-cortisol-test-lets-you-see-stress-with-a-smartphone-camera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/376801\/","title":{"rendered":"Revolutionary Cortisol Test Lets You \u201cSee\u201d Stress With a Smartphone Camera"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\"Stressed<\/a>A groundbreaking biosensor powered by protein design and smartphone cameras could transform how we measure the body\u2019s stress hormone, cortisol, bringing lab-level precision to point-of-care testing. Credit: Shutterstock<\/p>\n

A protein-based biosensor measures cortisol with high accuracy. Smartphone compatibility makes stress testing more accessible.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cortisol plays a key role in regulating essential body functions such as blood pressure and metabolism, and disruptions in this stress hormone can contribute to a variety of health problems.<\/p>\n

Traditionally, measuring cortisol required visits to a doctor\u2019s office or other clinical facilities. A recent breakthrough in artificial biosensor technology now offers the possibility of point-of-care testing, providing more accurate results than existing methods.<\/p>\n

Smartphone-enabled testing<\/p>\n

Andy Yeh, an assistant professor of biomolecular engineering at the University of California, Santa Cruz<\/a>, has developed a luminescent artificial sensor that attaches to cortisol molecules in blood or urine. Once bound, the sensor produces light, which reveals the concentration of the hormone. A study published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society confirmed that this method can reliably detect cortisol across the full range of levels important for human health.<\/p>\n

Yeh showed that the sensor could be paired with a smartphone camera, allowing cortisol levels to be measured either at home or in a clinic. This approach combines high sensitivity with affordability, eliminating the need for expensive laboratory equipment and making precise hormone monitoring far more accessible.<\/p>\n

Designed from scratch<\/p>\n

Yeh specializes in artificial protein engineering, which relies on AI-based computational design to create entirely new proteins rather than modifying ones already found in nature.<\/p>\n

For this project, he built a protein-based biosensor where cortisol binding causes two engineered proteins to draw close together at the molecular level. This interaction produces a light signal, with brighter emissions corresponding to higher cortisol levels.<\/p>\n

\"Andy<\/a>UC Santa Cruz Assistant Professor of Biomolecular Engineering Andy Yeh\u2019s lab focuses on artificial protein design. Credit: Impact Creative for UC Santa Cruz<\/p>\n

To Yeh\u2019s knowledge, this is the first example of a completely computationally designed biosensor that can perform with such high sensitivity and dynamic range for detecting a small molecule analyte. Using a camera to measure the amount and color of light emitted allows cortisol levels to be read with more sensitivity than current tests provide.<\/p>\n

Point-of-care applications<\/p>\n

This new diagnostic tool would be in a \u201cmix and read\u201d format\u2014similar to the technique used in Covid-19 nasal swab rapid tests. The test requires just a drop of blood or urine, which is mixed with a solution that contains the biosensor. Then, a smartphone camera and app could translate the light emitted into a direct measurement of cortisol levels.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can read the signal directly \u2014 the output of the sensor is light emissions, so essentially you can just take a picture of the test with your smartphone,\u201d Yeh said. \u201cIdeally, that\u2019s really field compatible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dynamic results<\/p>\n

The test\u2019s high level of sensitivity is a vast improvement over traditional tests, which don\u2019t usually offer enough quantitative results when outside of the cortisol normal range. Yeh\u2019s solution covers a wider dynamic range, offering quantitative results for healthy, too-low, and elevated levels of cortisol.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis sensor is very, very sensitive compared to the current standard methods used in the hospital,\u201d Yeh said. \u201cThe dynamic range is huge compared to the traditional assay.\u201d<\/p>\n

Down the line, Yeh envisions that this technology may also be used in a drug-development or diagnostic setting to better understand and treat the health issues that arise from cortisol deficiencies or surpluses.<\/p>\n

Reference: \u201cDe Novo Design of High-Performance Cortisol Luminescent Biosensors\u201d by Julie Yi-Hsuan Chen, Xue Peng, Chenggang Xi, Gyu Rie Lee, David Baker and Andy Hsien-Wei Yeh, 28 July 2025, Journal of the American Chemical Society.
DOI: 10.1021\/jacs.5c05004<\/a><\/p>\n

This research was supported by funding from the National Institutes of Health\u2019s National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and the UC Santa Cruz start-up fund.<\/p>\n

Never miss a breakthrough: Join the SciTechDaily newsletter.<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A groundbreaking biosensor powered by protein design and smartphone cameras could transform how we measure the body\u2019s stress…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376802,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4317],"tags":[131565,12848,40455,105,218,4920,49793,3961,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-376801","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-biosensor","9":"tag-biotechnology","10":"tag-cortisol","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-mental-health","13":"tag-stress","14":"tag-synthetic-biology","15":"tag-uc-santa-cruz","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115099034370471445","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}