Microparticle-based Biochemical Sensing Using Optical Coherence Tomography and Deep Learning

Advancing continuous health monitoring beyond vital signs to biochemistry will revolutionize personalized medicine. Herein, we report a novel platform to achieve remote biochemical monitoring using microparticle-based biosensors and optical coherence tomography (OCT). Stimuli-responsive, polymeric microparticles were designed to serve as freely-dispersible biorecognition units, wherein binding with a target biochemical induces volumetric changes of the microparticle. Analytical approaches to detect these sub-micron changes in 3D using OCT were devised by modeling the microparticle as an optical cavity, enabling estimations far below the resolution of the OCT system. As a proof of concept, we demonstrated the 3D spatiotemporal monitoring of glucose-responsive microparticles distributed throughout a tissue-mimic in response to dynamically-fluctuating levels of glucose. Deep learning was further implemented using 3D convolutional neural networks to automate the vast processing of the continuous stream of three-dimensional time series data, resulting in a robust end-to-end pipeline with immense potential for continuous in vivo biochemical monitoring.