PLANNING AND LEADERSHIP FOR A BETTER WORLD
PLANNING AND LEADERSHIP FOR A BETTER WORLD Instead of pricking your finger over and over to draw enough blood to test your blood sugar level after every meal, scientists at Draper Laboratory (Cambridge, Mass.) suggest that diabetics instead use a nanoscale sensor that can be injected into the skin like a tattoo. By shining an infrared light on the tattoo, blood sugar levels could be read at any time.
Today, diabetics routinely prick their finger for a drop of blood after meals, which they test for blood sugar (glucose) levels with a litmuslike paper strip that changes color to indicate whether an insulin shot is needed. Instead, Draper scientist Heather Clark and her colleagues are developing nano-inks with embedded sensors that fluoresce under infrared light in the presence of glucose, indicating how much is present in the blood and whether insulin is needed.
Eventually, the team hopes to develop implantable glucose monitoring devices that automatically dispense insulin as needed, but the first step is to perfect a reliable nanoscale glucose sensor. The scientists have already proven the concept of a nanosensor-tattoo in mice, but were detecting sodium levels instead of glucose. They are beginning animal tests on the glucose version of the nanosensor tattoos and expect to start human trials within two years.
Draper's nanoscale material consists of 120-nanometer diameter polymer (plastic) beads coated with a biocompatible material that has been functionalized with molecules that bind to glucose. By attaching fluorescent dyes to these sensor molecules, they can be made to glow only in the presence of particular substances, here blood sugar. The color of the glow corresponds to the amount of glucose in the blood—reddish for no glucose available, orange for normal and yellow for too much—permitting users to monitor their own levels just by looking at the color of their tattoo.
Once the technique has been perfected, Draper scientists plan to detect other molecules in the blood too, such as to monitor dehydration in athletes. But the scientists caution that extensive human trials still need to be performed before the tattoos become available to the public. Interactions between the injected polymer beads and the human immune system, for instance, need to be studied to get approval from the Food and Drug Administration.
The first versions designed for humans will probably be injected into the top layers of the skin, shallower than a conventional tattoo, so that over time they will slough off in the normal process of dead outer skin cells being replaced. A fluorescence monitor, which will resemble a small optical mouse, would then evaluate the tattoo's effectiveness as well as allow it to be periodically reinjected. In this way, the tattoo would not "fade" as with normal tattoos; plus, improvements to the nano-ink could be easily upgraded without the patient having to physically remove the old nano-ink, instead just waiting for it to wear off.
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