Devices and methods for sampling and profiling microbiota of skin

A microbe profiling device comprising:

• a hand-held housing defining an opening and including
• at least one rotatable component at least partially disposed in the opening defined by said hand-held housing;
• an elongated flexible strip disposed on an outer surface of the at least one rotatable component, an outer surface of the elongated flexible strip positioned to contact one or more regions of a skin surface of an individual through the opening defined by the hand-held housing, the outer surface of the elongated flexible strip including a plurality of signal-generating complexes, at least one of the plurality of signal-generating complexes to emit one or more signals in response to contact with at least one type of microbe from said one or more regions of the skin surface of the individual;
• a location capture component including circuitry to determine a location of said one or more regions of the skin surface of the individual as the outer surface of the elongated flexible strip including the plurality of signal-generating complexes contacts said one or more regions of the skin surface of the individual;
• at least one sensor component including circuitry to detect one or more signals emitted from the at least one of the plurality of signal-generating complexes in response to contact with the at least one type of microbe from said one or more regions of the skin surface of the individual and to transform the detected one or more signals into a sensor output;
• and
• a computing component including a microprocessor, the computing component including circuitry configured to
• receive information associated with the location of said one or more regions of the skin surface of the individual from the location capture component;
• receive the sensor output from the at least one sensor component;
• associate the location of said one or more regions of the skin surface of the individual with the detected one or more signals;
• and
• generate an output including information regarding an association between the location of said one or more regions of the skin surface of the individual and the detected one or more signal.

A method of profiling microbiota of skin, comprising:

• contacting one or more regions of a skin surface of an individual with a hand-held microbe profiling device, the hand-held profiling device including
• a housing defining an opening, the housing including;
• at least one rotatable component at least partially disposed in the opening defined by the housing,
• an elongated flexible strip disposed on an outer surface of the at least one rotatable component, an outer surface of the elongated flexible strip positioned to contact said one or more regions of the skin surface of the individual through the opening defined by the housing, the outer surface of the elongated flexible strip including a microbe-capture region,
• a location capture component including circuitry to determine a location of said one or more regions of the skin surface of the individual;
• at least one sensor component;
• and
• a computing component including a microprocessor, the computing component including circuitry;
• determining a location of said one or more regions of the skin surface of the individual with the location-capture component as the elongated flexible strip including the microbe-capture region contacts said one or more regions of the skin surface of the individual and generating a location output, the location output including information associated with the location of said one or more regions of the skin surface of the individual;
• advancing the elongated flexible strip past the opening defined by the housing to the at least one sensor component;
• analyzing the microbe-capture region on the elongated flexible strip with the at least one sensor component to detect one or more signals emitted or reflected from at least one type of microbe captured on the microbe-capture region from said one or more regions of the skin surface of the individual and transforming the detected one or more signals into a sensor output, the sensor output including at least one property of the detected one or more signals emitted or reflected from the at least one microbe captured on the microbe-capture region;
• receiving the sensor output with the computing component and comparing the at least one property of the detected one or more signals emitted or reflected from the at least one type of microbe captured on the microbe-capture region from said one or more regions of the skin surface of the individual with a database of reference microbe signal properties;
• receiving the location output with the computing component and generating a digital alignment of the location of said one or more regions of the skin surface of the individual with the detected one or more signals emitted or reflected from the at least one type of microbe captured on the microbe-capture region from said one or more regions of the skin surface of the individual;
• generating a microbe profile from the digital alignment with the computing component, the microbe profile including a spatial distribution of the at least one type of microbe on the skin surface of the individual;
• and
• reporting the microbe profile to a user.

A method of assessing a microbiota of a skin surface, comprising:

• contacting one or more regions of a skin surface of an individual with a hand-held microbe profiling device, the hand-held microbe profiling device including
• a housing defining an opening, the housing including;
• at least one rotatable component at least partially disposed in the opening defined by the housing,
• an elongated flexible strip disposed on an outer surface of the at least one rotatable component, an outer surface of the elongated flexible strip positioned to contact said one or more regions of the skin surface of the individual through the opening defined by the housing, the outer surface of the elongated flexible strip including a plurality of signal-generating complexes,
• a location capture component including circuitry to determine a location of said one or more regions of the skin surface of the individual;
• at least one sensor component;
• and
• a computing component including a microprocessor, the computing component including circuitry;
• determining a location of said one or more regions of the skin surface of the individual with the location capture component as the elongated flexible strip including the plurality of signal-generating complexes contacts said one or more regions of the skin surface of the individual and generating a location output, the location output including information associated with the location of said one or more regions of the skin surface of the individual;
• advancing the elongated flexible strip past the opening defined by the housing to the at least one sensor component;
• analyzing the elongated flexible strip with the at least one sensor component to detect one or more signals emitted from at least one of the plurality of signal-generating complexes in response to contact with at least one type of microbe from said one or more regions of the skin surface of the individual and transforming the detected one or more signals into a sensor output, the sensor output including at least one property of the detected one or more signals emitted from the at least one of the plurality of signal-generating complexes;
• receiving the sensor output with the computing component and comparing the at least one property of the detected one or more signals emitted from the at least one of the plurality of signal-generating complexes in response to contact with the at least one type of microbe from said one or more regions of the skin surface of the individual with a database of properties of reference signal-generating complexes;
• receiving the location output with the computing component and generating a digital alignment of the location of said one or more regions of the skin surface of the individual with the detected one or more signals emitted from the at least one of the plurality of signal-generating complexes in response to contact with the at least one type of microbe from said one or more regions;
• generating a microbe profile from the digital alignment with the computing component, the microbe profile including a spatial distribution of the at least one type of microbe on the skin surface of the individual;
• and
• reporting the microbe profile to a user.