Personalised nutrition smart patch to be developed in Australia

The world-first personalised nutrition wearable being developed by Melbourne-based start-up Nutromics painlessly measures key dietary biomarkers and sends the information to an app, enabling users to precisely track how their bodies respond to different foods.

The pioneering technology will be designed and manufactured in Australia.

A collaborative team led by Nutromics, RMIT University, Griffith University, and manufacturer Romar Engineering, with support from the Innovative Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre (IMCRC), is now researching and developing the required manufacturing capabilities to pilot manufacture the device.

Pre-diabetes is estimated to affect more than 350 million people globally; in the US and China alone, 1 in 2 adults are pre-diabetic or diabetic.

Nutromics co-CEO Peter Vranes said the smart patch leveraged emerging technologies to empower people to take greater control of their health.

“We’ve brought together a multi-disciplinary team of partners who are leaders in their fields to deliver Australian-made health technology that’s personalised and powerful,” Vranes said. …

Additive manufacturing challenge

The IMCRC funding is enabling a $6.9 million total project investment (cash and in-kind) into addressing the challenge of additive manufacturing and large-scale production of the smart patches.

David Chuter, CEO and Managing Director at the IMCRC, said the project would build Australia’s capability in medical technologies manufacturing and improve the competitiveness, productivity and sustainability of the advanced manufacturing sector.

“The manufacturing challenges addressed by this project will not only help deliver a low-cost, high-tech smart patch, but will also create technologies that are transferable to other Australian companies in the consumer and medical tech space,” Chuter said.