SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING, TOHOKU UNIVERSITY Driving Force THE POWER TO MAKE TOMORROW INTERVIIEW REPORT
SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING, TOHOKU UNIVERSITY Driving Force THE POWER TO MAKE TOMORROW INTERVIIEW REPORT

Sketching a future map of Sendai with the goal of having a better city An Engineering Approach
to the Wonders of Skin

Assistant Professor
Department of Mechanical Systems Engineering
Graduate School of Engineering,
Tohoku University
Yuina Abe REPORT #29

© School of Engineering, Tohoku University

Measuring the electrical
potential difference
inside skin in order to clarify
the skin's functions

What would you say if you were asked what the largest organ in the human body is? The answer is skin. With an area measuring approximately 1.6 m2 and weighing about 9 kg, the skin is said to be the largest among the various organs that make up the human body. “Skin has various functions: it has hair that protects the body; glands that secrete sweat and sebum, nerves that relay stimuli, and blood vessels that transport heat and nutrients. Moreover, being the “interface” between the inside and the outside of the body is one of its major characteristics,” says Yuina Abe, an Assistant Professor at the Department of Mechanical Systems Engineering of the Graduate School of Engineering at Tohoku University who has been investigating skin's functions from an engineering perspective.

When she was a graduate student at the Graduate School of Engineering at Tohoku University, she noticed a research paper about how a small electrical potential difference （transepidermal potential） is generated on a thin layer measuring only 0.1 mm on the surface of the skin, and when the skin is rough or wounded, that potential difference appears as an electrical change. She thought that if there were a tool that could easily measure that transepidermal potential, she could contribute to research on the skin's functions. She explains, “The goal was to create an easy-to-use tool that keeps damage to the skin to a minimum. After a little more than a year since my research started and with repeated trial and error on materials and methods, I finally succeeded in developing a tool that easily measures the electrical potential difference inside skin using a measuring device made from a very fine injection needle.

Assistant Professor Abe published the results of her research in a paper called “The Development of a Minimally Invasive Device for Electrochemically Evaluating Skin Functions,” for which she received the Fuji Television Award at the 34th Advanced Technology Award for Developing Originality sponsored by Fuji Sankei Business i. In 2019, she also received the JSME Women of the Future Award given by the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers, lauding her as a female researcher conducting skin research from an engineering perspective.

Seeing things at hand in
a different way after working
with non-engineering
researchers

Her research mentioned above was carried out in collaboration with other researchers at the Tohoku University School of Medicine and the Shiseido Global Innovation Center. She also participates in conferences for dermatology specialists to receive their expert advice regarding making tools for measuring transepidermal potential. She says, “We engineering researchers tend to get obsessed with the fun of technology. But I've received various comments regarding end users and patients from corporate and medical researchers. I've been asked if the tool can be used for quality checks in cosmetics development. I've also been asked if it can be made in a way that it's easier for patients to use. All of their questions were very new to me. I learned a lot because I deepened my understanding of the relationship between measured values and the body's mechanisms and their academic significance. The field is wide enough within engineering, but there are many people outside of it who have different research methods, interests and work styles. By working with such people, I was able to see things at hand in a different way. That was really fun.”

Based on the results of her research so far, how will the development of devices measuring transepidermal potential unfold in the future? She says, “After having developed the pen-type device, I am now developing an adhesive-type device that can detect changes in transepidermal potential in everyday life. By using such a device, I think it would be interesting to be able to measure the skin's daily rhythm - for example how it might feel tired in the evening and bounce back by the next morning. In the field of healthcare devices, there are body-friendly devices that don't contain metal, and there is progress on the development of small devices with sensors that gather all kinds of health information. I hope my research progresses in a way that it merges with the evolution of these devices. The skin's functions such as its sensing capabilities are becoming clearer and clearer, and I am also envisioning approaching such research from an engineering perspective.”

School of Engineering, Tohoku University Driving Force, The Power to Make Tomorrow. INTERVIIEW REPORT

Wanting to know more is
the driving force
behind her team's strength
propelling their research

After completing her doctorate in 2020, Assistant Professor Abe became an Assistant Professor at the Department of Mechanical Systems Engineering, but when she was first admitted to the School of Engineering, she did not intend to go to graduate school. “I thought it would be better if I started working right away after graduation. But when I first conducted research during my senior year, I started wanting to do more research, so I chose to continue on to graduate school. Research at grad school was even more fun than I had imagined, and I began to consider a future job in research. Getting a doctorate degree was a surprising development, even to me,” she says.

Where does the fun of engineering lie for Assistant Professor Abe, whose passion for finding out more has kept her research going? She says, “In line with my research theme, I find it interesting as an academic subject to view the human body as a mechanical system. Also, when you use engineering tools to investigate, you don't only think of the body as a machine, but you also begin to see its wonders, which is also part of the fun.”

Describing her position of Assistant Professor as “someone slightly higher-up for the students,” she deals with undergraduate and graduate students as a teacher who's also a friend with an appropriate distance. “I am conducting research and making experiments together with three students who have joined the lab because they are interested in skin as an interface between the human body and machines. Many students like monozukuri, or making things, so they come up with good ideas that surprise me, and every day I feel how wonderful it is to conduct research as a team,” she says.

Don't get flustered
especially when you're
unsure Delve more
deeply into something to
find what you like.

Although she seems like a science person at heart, her hobbies are visiting museums and aquariums, and reading. She says, “When I was in high school, I was better at liberal arts subjects, and I was interested in becoming a museum curator. I ultimately chose to study science and engineering because I liked doing experiments, and because I wanted to make things using my own hands that would be useful to people. I was often unsure and unable to choose before, but by delving deep into something to find what I liked, I was able to find what I really wanted to do.”

Assistant Professor Abe says she was unsure and troubled about various things such as choosing her laboratory, whether to go to graduate school or not, whether to look for a job or not. Looking back, what pulled her to engineering? She explains, “In engineering, as long as you don't get flustered and you study in order to build a solid foundation, you can always correct your course later, and there are a wide variety of challenges you can take on in this field. Even if you stop midway, the School of Engineering has a myriad of research paths and methods of approach that you can always choose from again. It's a place where you can make the tools to solve problems. I find it rewarding to be able to experience concrete feedback while moving forward. Perhaps being unsure can be a good thing.”