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Onur Parlak Team

Medical sensors and diagnostics

From left: Yunjia Song, Liu Yang, Begum K. Tokyay, Sihui Xu, Gizem Sahin, Onur Parlak, Yuqing Yang, Gaye Kaya, Olivia Rudqvist, Yi Li, Nicolas Maino, Emre Kucukgocen Photo: Yongjian Chen.

About

Our research focuses on innovative science at the intersection of biotechnology, materials science, and electronics to address critical societal needs in healthcare. The team investigates wearable sensors for early diagnostics and continuous monitoring, as well as 3D in-vitro systems for disease modeling and therapeutic applications. By engineering innovative sensor technologies, we strive to enhance real-time health monitoring and enable more effective, personalized medical interventions.

Main Focus of Our Research

Our research team is dedicated to advancing science at the intersection of biotechnology, materials science, and electronics to tackle critical challenges in healthcare. We focus on developing innovative wearable devices designed for early diagnostics, continuous health monitoring, and therapeutic applications. By leveraging electrochemical and bioelectronic techniques, our work explores how these technologies can provide real-time insights into an individual’s health status, enabling more personalized and effective medical interventions.

The Research Impact

The work we do aims to improve how we monitor and treat health conditions. Our research explores the potential of wearable sensors, and in-vitro systems, that can detect early signs of illness, monitor chronic conditions, and help guide therapeutic decisions. By making health monitoring more accessible and personalized, we hope to shift medical care toward more proactive, rather than reactive, approaches, ultimately improving patient outcomes and quality of life.

The Societal Benefits

Our research has broad societal implications, offering solutions that could transform healthcare systems worldwide. The development of sensor technologies for continuous health monitoring could help reduce healthcare costs, prevent disease progression, and enhance overall well-being. Additionally, our 3D in-vitro models provide an alternative to animal testing, offering more ethical and precise platforms for disease modeling and therapeutic testing. By focusing on practical, real-world applications, we aim to bridge the gap between cutting-edge science and everyday medical needs, making advancements in healthcare accessible to a wider population.

Ongoing Research

Our ongoing research focuses on several key areas:

Wearable Health monitoring. Photo: Getty Images.

1. Wearable Health Monitoring: We are developing epidermal sensors capable of continuously monitoring biomarkers in wound healing, skin infection and related conditions such as inflammatory skin diseases and neurological disorders.

Microneedle-based Therapeutic Devices. Illustration: Nicolas Maino.

2. Microneedle-based Therapeutic Devices: In addition to diagnostics, we are exploring wearable microneedle patches that can deliver targeted therapy in real time, adjusting to the user’s individual health needs.

3D in-vitro systems for disease modeling. Illustration: Sihui Xu.

3. 3D vitro-systems for disease modeling: Our work introduces a 3D epidermal skin model integrated with sensor interfaces to replicate human skin’s structure and monitor chemical physical changes in real-time. This innovative approach provides a more ethical and advanced alternative to traditional 2D models and animal studies, offering higher sensitivity and temporal resolution for skin research and biosensing applications.

Our team continually refines these innovations through both laboratory-based studies and real-world trials, allowing us to translate cutting-edge scientific advancements into viable healthcare solutions.

Team leader

Onur Parlak, principal investigator, onur.parlak@ki.se

Team members

Morteza Hassanpouramiri, postdoctoral researcher, morteza.hassanpouramiri@ki.se

Nicolas Maino, postdoctoral researcher, nicolas.maino@ki.se

Vibhav Sapineni, research assistant, vibhav.sapineni@ki.se

Yunija Song, postdoctoral researcher, yunjia.song@ki.se

Sihui Xu, PhD student, sihui.xu@ki.se

Liu Yang, PhD student, liu.yang.2@ki.se

Emine Yildirim, affiliated to research, emine.yildirim@ki.se

Funding

  • European Innovation Innovation Council (EIC), Pathfinder
  • Swedish Research Council (VR), Starting Grant in Medicine and Health
  • Swedish Skin Foundation
  • KI Research Incubator (KIRI)
  • Swedish Skin Foundation
  • Bo Rydin Foundation
  • Åforsk Foundation
  • Gästa Fraenckel Foundation
  • The Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation
  • Karolinska Institutet, Starting Grant

Collaborations

Collaboration is central to the success of our research. We work with a wide range of experts from diverse fields, including engineers, biologists, and clinicians. This interdisciplinary approach allows us to combine expertise from different domains, fostering innovation and accelerating the development of new healthcare technologies. We have established partnerships with academic institutions, healthcare providers, and industry to ensure our research addresses real-world medical needs and has the potential to be deployed on a global scale.

  • Peter Brodin, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden
  • Jonatan Martin Rodriguez, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden
  • Alexander Zink, Technical University of Munich, Germany
  • Cedric Badiou, Claude Bernard University Lyon, France
  • Sándor Beniczky, Aarhus University, Denmark
  • Carlos Conde, i3S, Portugal
  • Muhammed Ucuncu, Izmir Biomedicine & Genome Centre, Turkiye
  • Essity, Sweden
  • Kinetikos Health, Portugal

Dissemination and Outreach

From left: Nicolas Maino, Sihui Xu, Liu Yang, . Thre Researchers from Parlak Team in the exhibition at Tekniska Museum for science outreach, Stockholm. Photo: Nicolas Maino.

Since 2021, our research has been featured in numerous peer-reviewed journals and presented at international conferences. These publications highlight our advancements in bioelectronics, wearable sensors, and healthcare technology, contributing valuable insights to the scientific community.

Beyond academic circles, our team is deeply committed to engaging with the broader public through outreach initiatives. We actively collaborate with institutions like Tekniska Museum, Stockholm to inspire and educate the next generation of scientists and innovators. For example, we’ve worked on exhibits that demonstrate how everyday gadgets, like wearable sensors, can monitor health in real time. These efforts aim to spark curiosity and encourage younger audiences to explore careers in science and technology, making the concepts behind our research more accessible to the public. We believe that these outreach activities help bridge the gap between scientific advancements and society, fostering a deeper understanding of how technology can improve lives.

Our outreach activities, combined with our academic contributions, help ensure that our research reaches a wide audience and has a lasting impact on both the scientific community and society at large.

Selected publications

All publications from group members

About CMM

The Center for Molecular Medicine (CMM) is a foundation instituted by the Stockholm County Council (Region Stockholm). CMM is at the heart of a close partnership with the Karolinska University Hospital and Karolinska Institutet, fueling advancements in biomedical and clinical research.

Contact

Center for Molecular Medicine Foundation, org. nr. 815201-3689

Karolinska University Hospital L8:05

Visionsgatan 18

171 76 Stockholm, Sweden

communication@cmm.se

CMM
Karolinska institutet
Karolinska universitetssjukhuset