Drive Awake · Scientific partner
Forensic Medicine - IRM Zürich
The Institute of Forensic Medicine at the University of Zurich studies how to make sleep loss measurable. Here sleepiness is not only an impression: it begins to leave a biological trace.
Published nodeWho they are
IRM is the Institute of Forensic Medicine at the University of Zurich. Two areas matter for Drive Awake: traffic medicine, which assesses fitness to drive, and forensic pharmacology and toxicology, where the research on markers of sleepiness begins. Our contact is the group of Prof. Dr. Thomas Kramer.
What they study
They look for objective biological markers of sleep loss. The question is both simple and hard: can sleepiness be measured in a body fluid, the way alcohol already is? Their recent study tries to answer it starting from saliva, with mass spectrometry and machine learning.
From research to the road
A sleepiness fingerprint
Sleepiness begins to be measurable
In the study, a night without sleep leaves a recognisable metabolic fingerprint in saliva: a first direct marker of sleep loss under realistic conditions. It is a proof of concept, not yet a roadside test - a sample of 20 young men, results to be confirmed. But the direction is Drive Awake's: what can be measured can be prevented. The interactive deep-dive on the study is in the Science hub.
The people
- Prof. Dr. Thomas Kramer - forensic pharmacology and toxicology, corresponding author of the study
- Dr. Michael Scholz - in Prof. Dr. Thomas Kramer's group, our contact
How they connect to us
IRM brings the objective measure and the forensic lens. Drive Awake uses that lens to prevent, not to prosecute: forensic science as a tool for prevention, not blame. Same direction: to understand before judging.
Credits and links
IRM - Institute of Forensic Medicine, University of Zurich - irm.uzh.ch
Study: Journal of Proteome Research, 2026 - DOI 10.1021/acs.jproteome.5c01064