Systems and devices for sampling and profiling microbiota of skin

A microbe sampling unit comprising:

• a housing defining an opening, the housing including
• at least one rotatable component at least partially disposed in the opening defined by said housing;
• an elongated flexible strip disposed on an outer surface of the at least one rotatable component, the outer surface of the elongated flexible strip including a microbe-capture region, the microbe-capture region configured to capture at least one type of microbe from one or more regions of a skin surface of an individual;
• and
• a location information storage component configured to store information associated with the location of said one or more regions of the skin surface of the individual.

A microbe profiling system comprising:

• an analyzer including
• a receiving region sized to accept a replaceable microbe sampling unit, the replaceable microbe sampling unit including at least one rotatable component, an elongated flexible strip disposed on an outer surface of the at least one rotatable component and including a microbe-capture region to capture at least one type of microbe from one or more regions of a skin surface of an individual, and a location information storage component including information associated with a location of said one or more regions of the skin surface of the individual;
• a motor operably coupled to the at least one rotatable component of the replaceable microbe sampling unit, the motor including circuitry to drive rotation of the at least one rotatable component;
• at least one sensor component including circuitry configured to detect one or more signals emitted or reflected from the microbe-capture region of the elongated flexible strip of the replaceable microbe sampling unit and to transform the detected one or more signals into a sensor output including information associated with at least one property of the detected one or more signals;
• and
• at least one location information reader including circuitry to read the information associated with the location of the one or more regions of the skin surface of the individual from the location information storage component of the replaceable microbe sampling unit and to transform the information into a location output;
• a computing device including a processor, the computing device operably coupled to the analyzer;
• and
• non-transitory machine readable media bearing one or more instructions for generating a microbe profile, the one or more instructions including
• one or more instructions for receiving the location output from the analyzer, the location output including information associated with the location of said one or more regions of the skin surface of the individual;
• one or more instructions for receiving the sensor output from the analyzer, the sensor output including information associated with the at least one property of the detected one or more signals emitted or reflected from the microbe-capture region of the replaceable microbe sampling unit;
• one or more instructions for comparing the at least one property of the detected one or more signals emitted or reflected from the microbe-capture region of the replaceable microbe sampling unit with a database of reference signal properties;
• one or more instructions for identifying the at least one type of microbe captured on the microbe-capture region of the replaceable microbe sampling unit based on the comparison of the at least one property of the detected one or more signals emitted or reflected from the microbe-capture region of the replaceable microbe sampling unit with the database of reference signal properties;
• one or more instructions for generating an 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 microbe-capture region;
• one or more instructions for generating the microbe profile based on the alignment, the microbe profile including at least one of an identity or a spatial distribution of the at least one type of microbe on the skin surface of the individual;
• and
• one or more instructions for reporting the microbe profile to a user.