Blood Glucose Monitoring Contact Lens: The Future of Diabetes Care
A blood glucose monitoring contact lens could soon allow doctors and patients to track glucose levels and other vital health indicators without invasive tests. Scientists say the bio sensing lenses, based on technology that led to the development of smartphones with more vivid displays, could also potentially be used to track drug use or serve as an early detection system for cancer and other serious medical conditions.
Researchers presented their work at the 253rd National Meeting and Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society, featuring more than 14,000 presentations on a wide range of science topics.
The Science Behind the Blood Glucose Monitoring Contact Lens
“These biosensors probably won’t put blood labs out of business,” said Gregory S. Herman, Ph.D. “But I think that we can do a lot of diagnostics using information that can be extracted from tear drops in the eye.”
Herman first conceived of bio sensing while working in industry, where he and two colleagues invented a compound composed of indium gallium zinc oxide. This semiconductor revolutionized electronics, offering consumers higher resolution displays on televisions, smartphones, and tablets while saving power and improving touch screen sensitivity.
After moving to Oregon State University in 2009, Herman began investigating the technology’s biomedical applications — in particular, developing a blood glucose monitoring contact lens to help people with diabetes continuously track their glucose levels more efficiently.
Why Continuous Glucose Monitoring Matters
Continuous glucose monitoring, rather than the traditional prick and test approach, helps reduce the risk of diabetes related health problems. However, most continuous glucose monitoring systems require inserting electrodes under the skin, which can be painful and cause skin irritation or infections.
A blood glucose monitoring contact lens could eliminate many of these problems. Users can easily replace the lenses on a daily basis, and unlike skin electrodes, they are invisible — helping users feel less self conscious about managing their condition.
How the Biosensor Works
To develop the blood glucose monitoring contact lens, Herman and his colleagues first created an inexpensive method to make IGZO electronics. They then fabricated a biosensor containing a transparent sheet of IGZO field effect transistors and glucose oxidase, an enzyme that breaks down glucose. When glucose was added, the enzyme oxidized the blood sugar, shifting the pH level and triggering changes in electrical current through the transistor.
Because glucose concentrations are much lower in the eye than under the skin, the team created nanostructures within the biosensor capable of detecting glucose concentrations far lower than those found in tears — making the blood glucose monitoring contact lens sensitive enough for real world use.
In theory, more than 2,500 biosensors — each measuring a different bodily function — could be embedded in a 1 millimeter square patch of an IGZO contact lens. Once fully developed, the biosensors could transmit vital health information to smartphones and other Wi-Fi or Bluetooth enabled devices.
Beyond Diabetes: Broader Applications
Herman’s team has already used the IGZO system in catheters to measure uric acid, a key indicator of kidney function, and is exploring its potential for early detection of cancer and other serious conditions. However, it could be a year or more before a prototype blood glucose monitoring contact lens is ready for animal testing.
This kind of innovation in continuous monitoring aligns closely with the broader movement toward personalized medicine and decentralized healthcare delivery. For more on how new treatments move from research into clinical use, our introduction to clinical trials explains the full development pathway.
For those managing diabetes and looking to understand more about the condition itself, our article on types of diabetes provides a comprehensive overview of causes, diagnosis, and management strategies.
According to the American Diabetes Association, continuous glucose monitoring is one of the most effective tools for improving blood sugar management — making advances like the blood glucose monitoring contact lens a significant step forward for millions of patients.
Image Credit: Jack Forkey/Oregon State University Source: BioScience Technology | Published: April 6, 2017