--- title: Lab on a Contact Lens Can Measure Stress Through Serotonin description: Researchers at the Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation developed a soft contact lens embedded with graphene and silver electrodes that can detect... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/lab-on-a-contact-lens-can-measure-stress-through-serotonin-yglwaonmy twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Lab on a Contact Lens Can Measure Stress Through Serotonin | daily.dev og:description: Researchers at the Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation developed a soft contact lens embedded with graphene and silver electrodes that can detect... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/lab-on-a-contact-lens-can-measure-stress-through-serotonin-yglwaonmy og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/YGLWAONmy.png og:image:alt: Lab on a Contact Lens Can Measure Stress Through Serotonin og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Lab on a Contact Lens Can Measure Stress Through Serotonin **[IEEE Spectrum](https://daily.dev/sources/ieeespectrum)** · 5 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Researchers at the Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation developed a soft contact lens embedded with graphene and silver electrodes that can detect serotonin in tears at extremely low concentrations, offering a potential noninvasive way to measure stress. Lab tests with artificial tears, human volunteers performing stressful tasks, and a live pig eye showed the lens could reliably sense serotonin, which dropped with increased stress. The team also built a proof-of-concept wireless version using NFC for battery-free, smartphone-based readouts, though further safety testing and validation are still needed before clinical use. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How sensitive is the new smart contact lens at detecting serotonin in tears? The lens can detect serotonin concentrations as low as 72 trillionths of a mole per liter, far below the average human tear concentration of about 15 billionths of a mole per liter. It uses hydrogel encapsulating graphene and silver electrodes bonded with ferrocene, and it withstood over 28 days of repeated folding, stretching, and twisting while remaining functional. _Follow daily.dev for more on how biosensor engineering is pushing wearable health tech forward._ ### Can tear serotonin levels be used to measure stress instead of cortisol? Yes, tear serotonin levels dropped when volunteers performed stressful tasks like public speaking and math challenges, and mouse studies showed serotonin dropped similarly in blood and tears under stress. Researchers note serotonin reflects longer-term stress exposure, while cortisol, already monitored via sweat or interstitial fluid patches, captures immediate short-term stress responses. _Developers building health-monitoring wearables can track advances like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Fluidic Contact Lens Treats Glaucoma](https://daily.dev/posts/fluidic-contact-lens-treats-glaucoma-latjxflel) · Hackaday · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Smart Contact Lens Automates Glaucoma Drug Dosing](https://daily.dev/posts/smart-contact-lens-automates-glaucoma-drug-dosing-elz9otpus) · IEEE Spectrum · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [A flexible lens controlled by light-activated artificial muscles promises to let soft machines see](https://daily.dev/posts/a-flexible-lens-controlled-by-light-activated-artificial-muscles-promises-to-let-soft-machines-see-ne02e19fg) · Robohub · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Shape-sensing sheet digitally tracks its movement as it bends and twists](https://daily.dev/posts/shape-sensing-sheet-digitally-tracks-its-movement-as-it-bends-and-twists-b0xz7ngam) · MIT News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Cortisol Could Be the Next Frontier for Wearables](https://daily.dev/posts/cortisol-could-be-the-next-frontier-for-wearables-43jsba3fq) · IEEE Spectrum · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/lab-on-a-contact-lens-can-measure-stress-through-serotonin-yglwaonmy) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Lab on a Contact Lens Can Measure Stress Through Serotonin","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/lab-on-a-contact-lens-can-measure-stress-through-serotonin-yglwaonmy","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/lab-on-a-contact-lens-can-measure-stress-through-serotonin-yglwaonmy"},"datePublished":"2026-09-24T16:42:08.476Z","dateModified":"2026-09-24T16:42:29.854Z","description":"Researchers at the Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation developed a soft contact lens embedded with graphene and silver electrodes that can detect...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/07fcca410b7481d9bd1645b454b525c8?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/07fcca410b7481d9bd1645b454b525c8?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"IEEE Spectrum","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"IEEE Spectrum","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/b123f5e8420e492ab36f6adb30c1793a","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/ieeespectrum"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/lab-on-a-contact-lens-can-measure-stress-through-serotonin-yglwaonmy","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"","timeRequired":"PT5M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"IEEE Spectrum","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/ieeespectrum"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Lab on a Contact Lens Can Measure Stress Through Serotonin"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/lab-on-a-contact-lens-can-measure-stress-through-serotonin-yglwaonmy#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How sensitive is the new smart contact lens at detecting serotonin in tears?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"The lens can detect serotonin concentrations as low as 72 trillionths of a mole per liter, far below the average human tear concentration of about 15 billionths of a mole per liter. It uses hydrogel encapsulating graphene and silver electrodes bonded with ferrocene, and it withstood over 28 days of repeated folding, stretching, and twisting while remaining functional. Follow daily.dev for more on how biosensor engineering is pushing wearable health tech forward."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Can tear serotonin levels be used to measure stress instead of cortisol?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Yes, tear serotonin levels dropped when volunteers performed stressful tasks like public speaking and math challenges, and mouse studies showed serotonin dropped similarly in blood and tears under stress. Researchers note serotonin reflects longer-term stress exposure, while cortisol, already monitored via sweat or interstitial fluid patches, captures immediate short-term stress responses. Developers building health-monitoring wearables can track advances like this on daily.dev."}}]} ```