Researchers at the University of Seville develop an intelligent patch to control diabetes
A group of scientists from the 'Electronic Technology' group of the University of Seville (US), headed by the professor José Manuel Quero, have completed the first phase of the 'Mireia' project, which seeks to develop an intelligent patch to control diabetes in anytype of patients with this disease.
In a note, Andalusia Investiga indicated that this research, financed by the National Plan of the Ministry of Science and Innovation, aims to develop a system to inform the patient directly on the mobile every so often about their glucose level.
The system extracts the individual's interstitial fluid by means.
"There are many devices in the field of glucose that work, but the originality of our work is that the same technology that allows us to extract liquid gives us the possibility to also inject it," said Quero, who explained that the next phase would be to supply insulin, insulin,"Although the fan could be opened to numerous medications, almost automatically, always under medical supervision."
The professor also pointed out that, during the first of the four years of work, all efforts have been focused on solving the different parts of which the patch is composed, leaving for the coming months issues of integration of the components, evaluation of theresults and tuning.
Therefore, the initial step that has occurred in the project has been the design of microagujas."In a simple way, a biocompatible material has been used, the 'Su8' (a photosensitive polymer), which has been processed by different techniques to obtain the needles and to be able to put them on a printed circuit ('PCB') flexible," said aof the researchers of the Carmen Aracil Fernández group.
To extract the liquid, a patent from the University of Seville is being used that allows to create a microjeringuilla composed of a small deposit with a hole attached to the needle and that is plugged by a membrane that is destroyed in a controlled way.
Currently, researchers are also advancing in the concretion of a system capable of measuring the different variables that determine factors such as glucose level.Therefore, they are focusing their efforts on the design of the 'LAB on chip' or laboratory in a chip.
