Researchers at the University of Michigan have developed a silicone patch that could make melanoma screening as simple as an at-home COVID-19 test, with no blood draw or biopsy required.

The experimental device, called the ExoPatch, successfully distinguished between melanoma and healthy skin in mouse tissue samples by detecting cancer-specific markers in the skin’s outermost layer. The findings, published in Biosensors and Bioelectronics , are a first for a patch designed to capture disease-specific exosomes from fluid under the skin, said Sunitha Nagrath, Ph.D., the Dwight F. Benton Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Michigan and co-corresponding author of the study .

“A fair-skinned person with moles must go to the doctor about every six months to send off a bi

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