One of the ways to make a non-invasive blood glucose meter that
is most attractive to researchers is optical technology. It has
the promise of being less painful and more affordable than our
current blood glucose meters. In the news earlier this month is
the work that a team at the University of Southern California’s
Viterbi School of Engineering has high hopes for. A
correspondent was kind enough to bring to my attention a
December 28 article by Prachi Patel-Predd about a “New Optical
Glucose Sensor” in Technology Review from the esteemed
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Led by Gerald Loeb, a
professor of biomedical engineering there, the team is measuring
the change in fluorescent emissions that occurs when glucose
binds to certain molecules. The sensor is a tiny optical fiber
that could be implanted in the skin of people with diabetes. Dr.
Loeb says that a portable analyzer will shine ultraviolet light
into the free end of the fiber, measure the fluorescence, and
tell us our blood glucose level. He s