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Science has been figuring out ways to sidestep those dreaded finger pricks for years now, but it's not often that we hear of such a permanent solution as this. A crew of researchers from The University of Tokyo and BEANS Research Institute are in the process of developing a newfangled blood sugar sensor that "reacts to glucose and lights up inside the body." 'Course, injecting dyes into humans in order to receive interpretable signals ain't exactly new, but hydrogel is what makes this approach unique. As the story goes, this jelly-esque material can be implanted within the body, enabling blood sugar levels to be monitored and measured externally with no pain or irritation whatsoever. In theory, a monitoring system could trigger an alert as soon as the internal levels dipped or rose beyond a predetermined extreme, giving those with diabetes a maximum amount of time to get things back in balance. There's nary a mention of when this goo will be green-lit by the FDA, but there's definitely a video explaining everything just past the break.

Continue reading Implantable blood sugar sensor could eliminate daily finger pricks

Implantable blood sugar sensor could eliminate daily finger pricks originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 07 Aug 2010 06:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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