Researchers create tattoo that tracks sodium and glucose via iPhone

1) Tattoo is invisible. No stigma attached. 2) No blood drawn for testing for various materials 3) If processing and power get consolidated onto the phone, this will be massively portable and accessible to the masses, assuming they manufacture large quantities of the case.

Currently, the iPhone is basically just a camera chassis. You could achieve the same effect by building a case for your cheap little Canon Powershot, which has the benefit of including a removeable SD card.

sliverstorm• 15 years ago

Yeah, but using the iPhone is more buzzworthy. Even if you're just using it as a hammer, using the iPhone instead of something else = buzz and clicks

skimbrel• 15 years ago

Yes, the iPhone is currently just a camera chassis, but it's a network-enabled camera chassis. As the article said, they want to write an iPhone application to do the analysis immediately instead of offloading it to a desktop computer. If the processing is too heavy, the iPhone still has the advantage of being able to zap the image off to a server that can munge it and return the results. Easier than schlepping an SD card back to your PC.

Someone• 15 years ago

Using an iPhone still feels like a clumsy solution. I think the real application will use some ASIC in your insulin pump to do the processing, and immediately adjust the dosage.

allenp2• 15 years ago

Does anyone know if this could be used to detect alcohol levels?

briggsbio2• 15 years ago

I would think it certainly could. Whether it SHOULD, depends on the reason for testing blood alcohol levels:

Blood alcohol vis-a-vis alcohol intoxication: With widespread use of breathalyzers, I don't know if this technology would be an improvement. Having to get a tattoo to test for blood alcohol levels seems overkill (at least the tattoo would be necessary in the current stage of the technology's development). While not perfect, available technology (IMO) seems to be doing a sufficient job.

Liver disorders, cirrhosis, hepatitis, other liver disease: There are other diagnostics more appropriate than testing for blood alcohol content (BAC)for these. Ethanol is metabolized by the liver relatively quickly.

There may be applications for testing blood alcohol, but I don't think this technology is enough of an improvement to make it viable. A doctor may disagree. That is just my opinion.

chopsueyar• 15 years ago

It would be an improvement if the source code could be disclosed during the court case...but not mandatory tattoos a la nazi germany.

allenp2• 15 years ago

Oh I was thinking the ink would be worth $$$ for tattoos that only show up when you're drinking - like little details like flames that appear around an otherwise unadorned area, etc.

bh42222• 15 years ago

The specialized solution is made up of 120-nanometer-wide polymer droplets. The droplets consist of a fluorescent dye, sensor molecules designed specifically bind to certain target molecules (in this case, sodium or glucose) and neutralizing ions.

Hmm.... could this turn into a more generic approach of antibody based tattoos which could detect a large range of things, including bacterial and viral infections?

And the exam would consist of you snapping a picture of your arm every morning which is automatically sent to a Watson like computer for analysis. (Well it wouldn't have to be Watson level AI, it's either positive for something or not.)

streptomycin• 15 years ago

Yep. Also in this class of ideas are little chips floating around in your blood that automatically release drugs when they recognize a pathogen, and stuff that makes your poop change color when it notices bad things happening (seriously, this exists).

btcoal• 15 years ago

We're getting so close to that tricorder I can taste it. Keep it up guys!

TheEzEzz• 15 years ago

This sounds awesome, and the potential to monitor other chemical levels is even more exciting. My concerns:

Do the polymers wear out? Presumably they are binding to the target chemical. Can they rebind afterward? Does the body clear out the polymers at all?

briggsbio2• 15 years ago

This is pretty fantastic. So very many applications for such a technology. Obviously the primary indication for the technology in its current stage of development, quantifying blood sugar levels, is in and of itself, a large enough market to make this attractive. But this is early stage.

Consider the possibilities for the next stages of development:

- Advancing the formulation to obviate the need for a "tattoo." The next generation could be a solution simply applied to the skin that would penetrate deeply enough over a short period of time to test blood glucose without the need for a tattoo. The real time, point-of-care diagnostic frontiers, cost reduction, and other factors implied here are phenomenal.

- The article mentions glucose, sodium, and oxygen levels in the blood. The "sensor molecules" simply bind to the target molecule or ion and change the fluorescence, providing a reading. Think about the applications for other ions, lipids, amino acids, and even proteins and cytokines using antibodies. Molecular binding assays are prevalent across many, if not most, diagnostic assays. This could have application in such a wide range of indications it boggles the mind.

- Combining the testing to assess for multiple diagnoses in the same test. Think of a kind-of multiplex assay (such as an ELISA) in a single unit. iPhone aside (which is an awesome way to do it), think of a single unit that applies 50-100 small droplets of solution on the skin and sends a focused LED for testing each droplet individually (think of a bunch of small capillary straws, instead of the hundreds of needle pricks such as in an allergy test).

Glucose for diabetes: check.

Sodium for evaluation of electrolyte levels, kidney and adrenal function, cystic fibrosis disease state: check.

Bacterial infection (nosocomial infections especially, like MRSA), viral infections, toxin screening, hepatitis, rheumatic disorders, cancer, the list goes on and on...

Again, fantastic.

stretchwithme• 15 years ago

This is huge for diabetics. Not only will this alleviate some of their suffering, but it will make it easy to compare how the bodies of both diabetics and non-diabetics react to sugar. That will help optimize medication and help prevent overdosing on insulin.

My dad actually lost his vision to diabetes, which began a downward spiral of inactivity and isolation and eventually life in a nursing home. If he had been tightly monitored, that could have been prevented.

Researchers create tattoo that tracks sodium and glucose via iPhone

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