Adaptyx Biosciences, a Stanford spinout, has presented the first continuous, multi-day measurement of free cortisol in humans at the American Diabetes Association’s Scientific Sessions. The wearable patch sensor reads cortisol from dermal interstitial fluid, capturing the hormone’s daily rhythm with minute-level resolution – something conventional blood, saliva, and urine tests cannot do.
The significance: Cortisol is the upstream hormone driving glucose release, blood pressure, heart rate, inflammation, immune activity, and recovery. Every recovery and readiness score from consumer wearables is inferring a stress-and-metabolism signal that, until now, has never been measured continuously in a living person.
In two first-in-human studies, the wearable’s free-cortisol signal showed concordance with paired venous blood measurements during a controlled hydrocortisone challenge, and captured the cortisol awakening response and overnight nadir during normal daily activity. The broader program has collected over 400 hours of in-body monitoring data supporting an FDA Class II pathway.
Adaptyx’s initial clinical focus includes adrenal disease (Cushing’s syndrome, adrenal insufficiency) and cardiometabolic conditions where cortisol dysregulation shapes disease course – including difficult-to-control type 2 diabetes, treatment-resistant hypertension, and notably polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS, recently renamed from PCOS), as well as osteoporosis.
“Cortisol is one of the most consequential hormones in the human body, and glucocorticoid receptors are present in nearly every cell,” said co-founder and CEO Vijit Sabnis, PhD. “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.”
The underlying technology – programmable DNA-based molecular switches that reversibly bind target molecules – is designed to extend beyond cortisol to other hormones, drugs, electrolytes, peptides, and proteins. For women’s health specifically, continuous cortisol data could illuminate the hormonal dynamics underlying PMOS, stress-related fertility challenges, perimenopause symptoms, and the sleep and metabolic disruptions that define so many women’s health conditions but have only been measurable through static snapshots.
Adaptyx has raised $23 million in seed financing and was named the winner of the 2026 ADA Innovation Challenge.
