GLUCOSE TATTOOS

A diabetic who needs to check his or her insulin levels currently needs to draw blood, or wear bulky equipment. But one University professor has made great strides toward making testing for glucose levels as easy as wearing a temporary tattoo.

Engineering Prof. Joerg Lahann created particles with multiple, defined compartments. These types of particles can be filled with dye so the front and back are two different colors — for example, yellow and red — and would show a different color depending on chemical levels. This way, individuals can optically distinguish between the two colors and the particles can be used as a diagnostic system to detect levels of certain molecules.

The surfaces of one of the compartments — say, the yellow compartment — contains antibodies, but the other one is unbinding. If a patient wants to test, say, glucose levels, the particles will only link to that side, and will align in such a way that only the yellow color is visible. Once the glucose levels become stable, the particles fall apart and the color becomes orange — a mix of the two.

The particles work as a “temporary diagnostic tattoo,” Lahann says. They stay in your skin for about four months before they need to be replaced. The color changing can be used to optically detect imbalances in different molecules, from water to detect dehydration to glucose levels in diabetics.

“It’s almost like a check-engine light,” Lahann said. “So it’s like, ‘hey, you’re dehydrated, drink some water.’ So, if you have a reduction in the water level … you could essentially detect the color change and you drink and it gets better.”

Aside from using them as a diagnostic tool, there are other benefits to compartmentalizing particles. For example, it’s possible to put different drugs in different compartments and allow independent releases from different drugs. For example, there could be one drug released in 24 hours and one drug released in one week, depending on a patient's prescription.

SMART APPLIANCES

Courtesy of John Marshall