A recent discovery in diabetes care has the chance to make millions of lives a little bit easier. Most of us, at some point in our life, have had to get our blood sugar tested. Perhaps it was for giving blood or a physical. It is not the worst thing in the world, but it also is not fun. Imagine having to do that every day, multiple times a day.
For those with diabetes, the reality of the disease is that every day is a constant marathon of pricking your finger, testing blood sugar, tracking carbohydrate intake, administering insulin, and simply trying to keep the body balanced.
When my uncle was diagnosed with diabetes out of the blue, it took him and his wife years to really figure out how to take care of him. It was a constant struggle for him to stay healthy. For kids with Type I Diabetes, this struggle begins when they are young and continues for the rest of their lives. Many of us take for granted only having to worry about our health when we are sick. For some, it simply is not that easy. So of course, my uncle was delighted when he heard of a discovery made by a group of Korean scientists.
Diabetes is an insulin-related disorder. Insulin is a hormone released by beta cells in the pancreas. Insulin is released after we eat, and works to facilitate the build-up of energy stores. With insulin present, GLUT-4 transporters move in and allow glucose molecules to enter the cell. There, glucose can be stored in the form of glycogen. Without insulin, glucose will build up to dangerous levels in the blood.
In Type I Diabetes, the beta cells do not produce adequate levels of insulin. This causes glucose to build up in the blood. Type II Diabetics produce insulin, but their bodies have become resistant to it. Diabetics must closely monitor what they eat and often administer insulin shots. They must consistently track their blood sugar. If it becomes too high or at low, their lives could be at risk.
This new method of blood sugar detection is a wearable graphene patch. It monitors glucose levels in the sweat. “Graphene” sounds like “graphite” because they are both made of carbon atoms. Graphene is carbon atoms attached in a honeycomb pattern. This unique structure allows it to be incredible thin and incredibly strong (1).
This specific sensor is a patch of graphene lined with gold and with added computer chips. It is capable of monitoring pH, temperature, humidity, and of course glucose (2). The device is also theoretically capable of delivering doses of insulin in a nearly painless manner. The rest gets extremely technical, but basically an uptake layer brings sweat into the device, where certain things, such as glucose presence, can be determined. Then, microneedles deliver a determined dose of insulin into the skin. Due to the nature of graphene, the device is very thin and flexible, so it sits on the wearer’s skin with relative comfort (2). In other words, as far as I can tell, it may just be the best thing to happen in diabetes technology in a long time.
It is easy to say that research should only be focused on “the big stuff”. We want the big wins. Those in the sciences often dream of curing cancer or discovering the answer to the biggest question in science. Those things are important, but that are not the only point of research. This may not have been a cure for diabetes, but it is still a win. It was enough for my uncle to excitedly tell me about it on the phone. It makes lives easier, and for that, it is still incredibly applicable and impactful research.
Katherine Estep is a sophomore BIC student majoring in neuroscience.
(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphene
(2) http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nnano.2016.38.html
I am happy that Randy learned of this patch.