A team of researchers from Institute of Industrial Science at the University of Tokyo are using a mouse as a test rodent for a cool new sensor that may someday help make monitoring blood sugar less painful for diabetics. Keep reading for more…
The glowing blue stick you see in the tweezers is a new sensor that the team has been working on that glows to show the mouse’s blood sugar. The sensor uses glucose-responsive fluorescent hydrogels inside and is 1mm in diameter. It is designed to be easily injected under the skin and can be removed with tweezers like a splinter.
The sensor has shown to be accurate and durable enough to stay inside the body for up to 140 days in mice. The team is working on calibrating and testing the sensor further to improve the accuracy and duration of the sensor. Eventually the hope is that the sensor can be used in humans to allow blood sugar monitoring without having to prick the finger to draw blood for conventional testing.
