PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Miniature device offers peace of mind for diabetics

New funding will help researchers develop an injectable grain-of-rice-sized continuous glucose monitor technology

Miniature device offers peace of mind for diabetics
2023-11-17
(Press-News.org) The first glucose self-monitoring system created in 1970 weighed three pounds, was initially designed only for physicians’ offices and needed a large drop of blood for a reading. Over 50 years later, researchers at Texas A&M University are working to create a fully injectable continuous glucose monitor (CGM) so small it rivals a grain of rice and can be used with an external optical reader to measure sugar levels at any given time.

While CGMs have advanced over the last 25 years, current models can still be a nuisance to the user and the required upkeep may discourage use. To address this issue, two faculty members from the Department of Biomedical Engineering have received a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to fund a multidisciplinary project to develop an injectable, grain-of-rice-sized glucose biosensor and wearable device enabling user-friendly, minimally-invasive continuous monitoring.

“CGMs are commercially available, but most of them are indwelling, meaning there is a needle in the skin connected to a patch on the arm,” said co-principal investigator and Regents Professor Dr. Gerard Coté. “There is one CGM that is totally implantable, but it is much bigger than ours and requires a doctor to surgically implant it with an incision.”

The NSF grant is backed by the biosensing program, a part of the engineering biology and health cluster of the NSF Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental and Transport Systems (CBET) Division. The division aims to support trailblazing research and education in these areas.

Using Autofluorescence To Read Blood Sugar  Coté and his lab are designing the injected sensor’s chemistry and developing the watch-type reader device. The sensor is put under the skin and analyzed using light from the watch-like device to determine the glucose concentration. The reader sends the signal to a cell phone and the patient can share the results with their health provider.

“The chemical assay in the injectable sensor is used to determine the concentration of the glucose within the tissue, and the watch device sends in light and measures the fluorescence from the sensor to give the sugar concentration,” Coté said.

Aside from its unique size and injectability, the sensor and wearable reader employ an optical sensing technology that addresses the challenges associated with biosensing for populations of darker skin tones.

“We use chemistry that has a fluorescent color that emits in the red and infrared range rather than green light, which works better for the darker skin tones,” Coté said.

Protecting The Sensor Co-principal investigator Dr. Melissa Grunlan, Charles H. and Bettye Barclay Professor in Engineering, is working with her lab to wrap the sensing chemistry in a membrane that makes it more compatible within the body.

“When you implant something, the body thinks, ‘This does not belong here,’ and it tries to seal it off,” Grunlan said. “When that happens, that sensor can’t work because there’s no glucose getting into it. Our membrane is a hydrogel, similar to the material used for contact lenses, but this is a special hydrogel that is thermoresponsive.”

The thermoresponsive nature allows the sensor to sit subtly in the body. The surface actively swells and shrinks just enough to keep cells and proteins from sticking to the sensor and forming obstructive scar tissue around it.

Grunlan and Coté recently had a patent issued on the membrane technology and are considering different devices it could be used with, particularly to sustain the lifetime of medical devices.

“The membrane could be applied to assorted devices that are prone to adhesion processes in the body,” Grunlan said. “It could be used on maybe a catheter to prevent thrombosis and infection by preventing the accumulation of proteins, cells, and organisms.”

Multidisciplinary Research In Biomedical Engineering The project culminates nearly two decades of research and collaboration between Coté’s biosensing expertise and Grunlan’s biomaterial expertise.

“Working together as a team with complementary expertise is the key to developing complicated technologies such as this one,” Coté said. “Being able to collaborate with an expert like Dr. Grunlan in designing and developing biocompatible materials and bringing our experience in optical biosensor design is needed and gives us hope for success.”

Although the grant is new funding, Grunlan and Coté have been preparing for this stage of their project for some time now and feel confident in the device’s outcome.

“Dr. Coté and I have done extensive research in the past together that has led up to this study and this particular grant,” Grunlan said. “We’ve done some preclinical studies to assess the membrane’s biocompatibility. He’s done extensive work developing the sensing chemistry. What’s great about this grant is now we can prove our idea, and we’re in a really good position to do that.”

By Bailey Noah, Texas A&M Engineering

###

END

[Attachments] See images for this press release:
Miniature device offers peace of mind for diabetics Miniature device offers peace of mind for diabetics 2 Miniature device offers peace of mind for diabetics 3

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Argonne receives funding to advance diversity in STEM

2023-11-17
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory funding as part of the Reaching a New Energy Sciences Workforce (RENEW) initiative, aimed at fostering diversity in STEM and advancing innovative research opportunities. DOE announced $70 million to support internships, training programs and mentorship opportunities at 65 different institutions, including 40 higher-learning institutions that serve minority populations. By supporting these partnerships, DOE aims to create a more diverse STEM talent pool capable of addressing ...

Research spotlight: prescribing of benzodiazepines in a homeless veteran population

Research spotlight: prescribing of benzodiazepines in a homeless veteran population
2023-11-17
What Question Were You Investigating? Despite elevated risk for substance use disorder and overdose death in the homeless population, benzodiazepine prescribing for this population has not been examined. Our team therefore set out to answer the questions: What is the rate of benzodiazepine prescribing to homeless vs. non-homeless veterans with mental illness in the VA system? Are homeless veterans more likely to receive risky and potentially inappropriate prescriptions?   What Methods Did You Use? We used logistic regression to compare likelihood of benzodiazepine prescribing and t tests to compare ...

First human clinical trial for pill-sized device that monitors breathing from the gut

First human clinical trial for pill-sized device that monitors breathing from the gut
2023-11-17
Scientists have developed an ingestible device that can safely monitor vital signs like breathing and heart rate from inside humans. The tool, described November 17 in the journal Device, has the potential to provide accessible and convenient care for people at risk of opioid overdose. “The ability to facilitate diagnosis and monitor many conditions without having to go into a hospital can provide patients with easier access to healthcare and support treatment,” says Giovanni Traverso, the first author of the paper, associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and gastroenterologist at Brigham ...

Ingestible vital signs monitor shows promise in first-in-human trial

Ingestible vital signs monitor shows promise in first-in-human trial
2023-11-17
What if, instead of going into a sleep lab or being connected to monitoring devices, a patient could have their risk of obstructive sleep apnea measured by swallowing a pill? A new collaborative study from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Celero Systems and West Virginia University, evaluated a wireless ingestible device that can accurately report vital signs like heart and respiratory rate. The team tested the device, known as the Vitals Monitoring Pill (VM Pill), in a pilot ...

Putting an end to plastic separation anxiety

Putting an end to plastic separation anxiety
2023-11-17
Bio-based plastics such as polylactic acid (PLA) were invented to help solve the plastic waste crisis, but they often end up making waste management more challenging. Because these materials look and feel so similar to conventional, petroleum-based plastics, many products end up not in composters, where they break down as designed, but instead get added to the recycling stream by well-intentioned consumers. There, the products get shredded and melted down with the recyclable plastics, bringing down the quality of the mixture and making it harder to manufacture functional products out of recycled plastic resin. The only solution, currently, is to try to separate the different ...

Ingestible electronic device detects breathing depression in patients

Ingestible electronic device detects breathing depression in patients
2023-11-17
CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Diagnosing sleep disorders such as sleep apnea usually requires a patient to spend the night in a sleep lab, hooked up to a variety of sensors and monitors. Researchers from MIT, Celero Systems, and West Virginia University hope to make that process less intrusive, using an ingestible capsule they developed that can monitor vital signs from within the patient’s GI tract. The capsule, which is about the size of a multivitamin, uses an accelerometer to measure the patient’s breathing rate and heart rate. In addition to diagnosing sleep apnea, the device could also be useful for detecting ...

Higher-dose fluvoxamine and time to sustained recovery in outpatients with COVID-19

2023-11-17
About The Study: Among outpatient adults with mild to moderate COVID-19, treatment with fluvoxamine 100 mg twice daily for 13 days, compared with placebo, did not improve time to sustained recovery in this randomized clinical trial of 1,175 participants.  Authors: Susanna Naggie, M.D., M.H.S., of the Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, North Carolina, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jama.2023.23363) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, ...

Educational outcomes for children at 7 to 9 years of age after birth at 39 vs 40 to 42 weeks’ gestation

2023-11-17
About The Study: In this study of 155,000 births, using a causal inference framework based on target trial emulation, birth at 39 weeks’ gestation was not associated with adverse numeracy and literacy outcomes at school age compared with birth at 40 to 42 weeks.  Authors: Roxanne Hastie, Ph.D., of the University of Melbourne, is the corresponding author.  To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/  (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.43721) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for ...

State reporting requirements for involuntary holds, court-ordered guardianship, and the national firearm background check system

2023-11-17
About The Study: In this study of state laws, there was substantial heterogeneity in National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) reporting requirements for mental health prohibitions for firearm possession and a lack of clarity around processes. This raises questions about the ability of NICS to be used to block firearm purchases or possession by individuals with court-identified high risk of perpetrating violence toward themselves or others.  Authors: Marian E. Betz, M.D., M.P.H., of the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus School of Medicine in Aurora, is the ...

Benefits of adolescent fitness to future cardiovascular health possibly overestimated

2023-11-17
There is a well-known relationship between good physical fitness at a young age and a lower risk of cardiovascular disease later in life. However, when researchers adjusted for familial factors by means of sibling analysis, they found a weaker association, although the link between high body mass index (BMI) and cardiovascular disease remained strong. The study, which was conducted by researchers from Karolinska Institutet and other universities, is published in JAMA Network Open. “This does not mean that fitness is irrelevant,” ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

For heart health, food quality matters more than cutting carbs or fat

Study suggests obesity contributes to anxiety and cognitive impairment

Higher linoleic acid levels linked to lower heart disease and diabetes risk

Dual-target CAR T cell therapy slows growth of aggressive brain cancer

Adding immune checkpoint inhibitor to standard chemotherapy regimen improves outcomes in stage 3 colon cancer, study finds

Diet influences survival after stage iii colon cancer, Dana-Farber study finds

Switch to experimental drug after liquid biopsy detection of breast cancer recurrence improves outcomes

Alliance presents results from phase III ATOMIC trial combining atezolizumab with chemotherapy for patients with stage III dMMR colon cancer at ASCO 2025

Immunotherapy boosts chemotherapy in combating stage 3 colon cancer

AI deciphers plant DNA: language models set to transform genomics and agriculture

Endophytic fungi from halophyte Sesuvium portulacastrum enhance maize growth and salt tolerance

Quality of kids’ diets linked with dad’s eating habits as a teen

Alliance trial shows dual immunotherapy improves progression-free survival in advanced squamous cell skin cancer

Insights from immunotherapy trial inform new approaches to treating advanced skin cancer

Genome breakthrough reveals secrets behind rapid growth and invasiveness of tropical vine Merremia boisiana

Transforming the certification process of 3D-printed critical components

UC Davis clinical trial shows biomarkers hold clue in treating aggressive prostate cancer

UT Health San Antonio researchers discover new links between heart disease and dementia

AADOCR announces new SCADA/Dentsply Sirona Research Award

Mass General Brigham researchers present key findings at ASCO

Student researchers put UTA on national stage

Hertz Foundation and Breakthrough Energy partner to advance climate and energy solutions

New study reveals how tiny insects detect force

New 3D genome mapping technology sheds light on how plants regulate photosynthesis

Dinosaur eggshell study confirms biogenic origin of secondary eggshell units

Transforming immunotherapy design

New book with a global view of men’s experiences with partner violence

New research recovers evidence for lost mountains from Antarctica’s past

Scientists discover new evidence of intermediate-mass black holes

Predicting underwater landslides before they strike

[Press-News.org] Miniature device offers peace of mind for diabetics
New funding will help researchers develop an injectable grain-of-rice-sized continuous glucose monitor technology