Adaptyx Biosciences, a Stanford University spinout commercializing more than 18 years of continuous molecular biosensing research, today presented the first continuous, multi-day measurement of free cortisol in humans at the American Diabetes Association’s 86th Scientific Sessions. The data showed Adaptyx’s wearable sensor measuring free cortisol from dermal interstitial fluid, the fluid just beneath the skin, in two first-in-human studies: a controlled oral hydrocortisone challenge in which the wearable signal tracked paired venous blood measurements, and overnight monitoring that captured the body’s own cortisol rhythm during normal daily activity.
“Cortisol is one of the most consequential hormones in the human body, and glucocorticoid receptors are present in nearly every cell, which is why cortisol impacts every major organ system,” said Vijit Sabnis, Ph.D., co-founder and CEO of Adaptyx. “Clinical care has treated the downstream effects, including diabetes, hypertension, and depression, without ever being able to monitor the upstream signal driving much of the response. Adaptyx built the device that finally does.”
Cortisol’s clinical interpretation is currently limited by tests that capture only a single-time snapshot that compress a full day into an average. A late-night saliva test can miss the overnight low point. A morning blood test can miss the morning rise. A 24-hour urine collection can capture total output without showing whether the rhythm was flattened, delayed, or time-shifted. Analyzing the time dynamics of cortisol rhythms is where continuous cortisol data become clinically useful, because the hormone directs glucose release, blood pressure, heart rate, inflammation, immune activity, and recovery. The data presented at ADA demonstrate how those dynamic measurements can be captured as a continuous, measurable signal in humans.
For its first in-human studies, Adaptyx designed two complementary arms to validate what matters most: that the sensor accurately tracks cortisol when it changes, and that it captures the physiological rhythms clinicians can’t see with a single blood draw. In the hydrocortisone challenge with a 20 mg oral dose, the wearable’s free-cortisol signal showed concordance with paired venous blood samples analyzed by established laboratory methods, including liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). In overnight monitoring, the Adaptyx wearable captured the cortisol awakening response and the overnight nadir. One study anchors the sensor to the blood measurements that clinicians and researchers already use. The other shows the living rhythm that static tests miss.
Adaptyx’s 16-channel sensor array used in these studies incorporates eight cortisol-specific molecular switches and eight control channels, providing statistical replication within each subject. The sensor has demonstrated a limit of detection below 1 nM in artificial interstitial fluid and showed strong agreement across the array in the ADA studies. The broader IRB-approved human program has collected more than 400 hours of in-body monitoring data, supporting Adaptyx’s FDA submission pathway as a cortisol monitor through a Class II regulatory route.
“Developing a continuous cortisol sensor represents an immense technical challenge that can’t be addressed by enzymatic-based biosensors like continuous glucose monitors,” said Alex Yoshikawa, Ph.D., co-founder and Chief Science Officer of Adaptyx. “It requires a fundamentally new approach to enable continuous measurements and robust operation at physiological concentration levels more than one million times lower than glucose. Adaptyx’s breakthrough is the ability to develop a programmable DNA-based molecular switch chemistry that reversibly and specifically binds free cortisol and generates a continuous electrical signal that maintains integrity to drift, motion, tissue effects, and background noise. The ADA data show these switches deliver accurate and stable performance over multiple days in human studies.”
Adaptyx’s molecular switches are synthetic DNA structures that change shape when they bind a target molecule, generating an electrical signal that can be measured with a wearable sensor. Unlike conventional diagnostic assays, the molecular binding is designed to be reversible, thereby allowing the sensor to repeatedly measure the concentration of free cortisol over time with minute-level resolution. The molecular switches developed by Adaptyx can be designed for nearly any molecule present in dermal interstitial fluid, representing a technology platform that extends continuous biosensing from today’s glucose monitoring to a breadth of molecular markers that impact human health, including hormones, small molecules, drugs and pharmaceutical compounds, electrolytes, peptides, and proteins. Adaptyx’s multi-channel wearable sensor enables the measurement of multiple analytes simultaneously and continuously, a capability that will unlock rich molecular interpretation across numerous health applications that isn’t possible today.
Adaptyx is initially developing the continuous cortisol monitor for two clinical groupings. The first is adrenal disease, where the absence or excess of cortisol is the diagnostic focus: Cushing’s syndrome shows chronically elevated cortisol with loss of diurnal variation, and adrenal insufficiency reflects underproduction that can be life-threatening. The second is cardiometabolic disease, where cortisol dysregulation shapes the disease course and response to therapy for millions of patients, including difficult-to-control type 2 diabetes, treatment-resistant hypertension, metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS, recently renamed from PCOS), and osteoporosis.
Beyond those initial groupings, continuous cortisol monitoring opens applications wherever cortisol dysregulation contributes to disease. In psychiatry, the daily cortisol rhythm could provide objective biological context for depression, anxiety, PTSD, and bipolar disorder. In critical care, continuous cortisol data could track stress hyperglycemia, septic shock physiology, and post-surgical adrenal insufficiency as they unfold. For pharmaceutical developers, measuring cortisol response within hours of dosing could show whether a therapy is changing the hormone signal before slower downstream endpoints appear. Adaptyx is also exploring consumer applications of cortisol monitoring for managing stress, sleep, and metabolism as well for optimizing exercise and athletic performance.
Adaptyx was also named the winner of the 2026 American Diabetes Association Innovation Challenge.
“Few hormones regulate as many systems at once as cortisol: metabolism, immunity, cognition, cardiovascular function, and reproductive health,” said Sabnis. “Yet clinicians have had to infer its rhythm from isolated tests. Existing tests are discrete, low-temporal-resolution, and individually inadequate to characterize a hormone whose biology is fundamentally dynamic. The continuous curves we are presenting at ADA are the first steps to unlocking a window into an individual’s body rhythm and stress response. What we learn can reveal what happened before glucose spiked, before sleep was disrupted, before recovery failed, or even what happened after a therapy was given.
“By starting our journey with cortisol, we are unlocking our understanding of one of the body’s most impactful regulatory hormones and the downstream signals it shapes. The same sensing chemistry extends to other hormones and molecular biomarkers as the platform expands, and with each new analyte, the picture of what is actually happening inside the body becomes clearer and more actionable.”
About Adaptyx Biosciences
Adaptyx Biosciences is a Stanford spinout commercializing more than 18 years of continuous molecular biosensing research from the laboratory of H. Tom Soh, Ph.D., a Stanford professor and Chan Zuckerberg Biohub investigator, as well as technology developed by the laboratory of Joseph M. DeSimone, Ph.D., a Stanford professor, recipient of the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, and co-founder of the 3D printing company Carbon.
Adaptyx holds an exclusive license to nine patents from Stanford covering the underlying technology and has filed 18 additional patents since founding. The leadership team includes Chief Executive Officer Vijit Sabnis, Ph.D., Chief Science Officer Alex Yoshikawa, Chief Technical Officer Pawan Kapur, Ph.D., and Chief Medical and Business Officer Daniel Grossman, M.D.
Adaptyx has raised $23 million in seed financing to date. The company’s Continuous Molecular Monitoring platform uses programmable, DNA-based molecular switches to read hormones, drugs and pharmaceutical compounds, electrolytes, and other biomarkers continuously in dermal interstitial fluid. The platform’s first clinical analyte is cortisol. Adaptyx is headquartered in Menlo Park, California. For more information, visit adaptyx.bio.
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