New Hope for Diabetics

Diabetics, tired of pricking your finger to find out your blood glucose levels? Good news at last.

A new invention which eliminates the need for diabetics to prick their finger check blood sugar levels is currently under development.

Dr. Gerard Cote and Dr. Mike McShane at Texas A&M University are spear-heading this project. The invention consists of two separate devices.



One of the devices is small fluorescent particles which are inserted into the diabetics wrist, six epidermal layers deep. The device has to be six layers deep to prevent it from being shed with dead skin by the body. The other device is a device which shines a laser on the particles, which then glow a certain color depending on your blood sugar level, and translates the particle color into a digital readout.

Best of all is that this project was started a few years before the class of 2010 joined TAMU and we will probably see its fruitation by the time we graduate.

BioTex, based in Houston, is also making a similar device.

The link to the article is:
"24/7 Blood Sugar Test" http://www.rd.com/health/diabetes/blood-sugar-test-medical-breakthrough-/article.html

Picture source:
http://www.bioe.psu.edu/navigate/SeminarsFall2005.htm

P.S. For more information e-mail Dr. Cote at gcote@tamu.edu or Dr. McShane at mcshane@tamu.edu