Main > ENDOCRINOLOGY > Diabetes. Glucose. Monitoring. > Org.: USA. U. Eye Fluid Sensor > Work Description
photonic crystal chemical-sensing material for contact lenses that change color with glucose levels.
The crystalline colloidal arrays that coauthor described are made of polystyrene latex particles incorporated into a polyacrylamide-poly(ethylene glycol) hydrogel with boronic acid groups attached. Glucose binds to the boronic acid, causing the gel to shrink and the distance between the colloidal particles to decrease. In response, the diffraction wavelength shifts to shorter wavelengths as the glucose concentration increases, producing a color change that can be detected visually.
The research is still in the early phases, but the group envisions a sensor that would be worn like a contact lens to detect the glucose in tear fluid. The patient would look at the color diffracted from the sensor by looking in a mirror with a small light source. The photonic sensor diffracts a particular color back, which depends on the glucose concentration in the tear fluid. The diffraction depends on the embedded crystalline colloidal array lattice constant, which changes as the glucose concentration changes. The group has received funding for animal studies, which will begin soon.
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