ModBlog News of the Week: July 22nd, 2011

So with the record breaking temperatures in Toronto this week, it seems that modification related stories have dried up.  In fact, there’s only 1 story this week.

Diabetics the world around continually have to deal with checking their blood sugar levels.  This of course means they have to carry around a meter and deal with regular finger pricks.  Well a couple of scientists have come up with a unique way to get around this chore, using an iPhone app.

For diabetics, checking blood glucose levels is literally a pain. Current blood glucose meters require a prick of the finger to get a small blood sample that is then put onto a small paper strip, inserted into the meter, and analyzed. The strips are a recurring cost to diabetics, and the constant finger pricks can be a route for infection. Now a research team at Northeastern University has developed a method of reading blood glucose levels with an iPhone and a nanosensor tattoo.

The team’s method works this way: they inject a patient with subdermal nanoparticles containing “fluorescent dye, specialized sensor molecules…and a charge-neutralizing molecule.” The molecules attach to glucose, release ions, and alter the glow of the nanosensor tattoo based on the relative amount of glucose.   While the initial device for reading the tattoo’s glow was a big ugly box, one of the team members apparently outfitted an iPhone case with LEDs and filters to do the job.

Now it is a bit of a stretch to call this a tattoo, but with inks injected into the skin, I’ll let it slide.  Hopefully in a few years this will become publicly available, making things a lot easier for diabetics.

Well, with the lack of stories in the news, I’m going to need more submissions from you.  So if you come across anything you think should be included, just click here to send me the link.

Have a great weekend everyone, especially those of you making the trip to the annual ECBBQ.