Sugar Sensor Goes Nano

[nanoorg]

Sugar Sensor Goes Nano

A new type of glucose sensor containing silicon nanowires could radically change the way blood sugar is measured. The device would allow continuous in vivo detection of glucose – something that would be invaluable for diabetics.

Currently, diabetic patients measure the amount of glucose in their blood by testing small blood samples. This makes it impossible to continuously monitor their blood sugar levels. Now, a team of physicists led by Raj Mohanty from Boston University has made a silicon-based nanoscale glucose sensor that could easily be implanted into a patient to overcome this important problem.

The device can detect glucose down to just 0.5?mM/l in as little as 3.5 minutes. "Even more exciting is that it is fabricated using standard silicon processes and lithographic techniques," Mohanty told nanotechweb.org.

The top-down approach to make the device is very different to previous bottom-up attempts to fabricate in vivo glucose sensors. Top-down lithography employs standard semiconductor fabrication processes and thus allows better control of device properties, explains Mohanty. This means that high-performance, low-cost implantable glucose biosensors are finally possible.

Source: http://nanotechweb.org/...