New Hope for Diabetics

ASEE Prism, Apr 2006 by Home-Douglas, Pierre

BIOMED

IT'S A FAMILIAR experience for Type 1 diabetes patients-pricking their fingers to monitor their blood glucose levels. But if mechanical engineering professor Mu Chiao of Canada's University of British Columbia has his way, it will eventually become a thing of the past. Chiao has assembled a multidisciplinary group of engineers and scientists to develop an implantable biosensor that will transmit information to a wireless display unit. The tiny chip, less than 3 millimeters square, will be sheathed in a material that will resist rejection by the body. The device would not be limited just to sensing blood glucose levels. Chiao says its applications extend from monitoring any chemical levels inside the body to delivering regular doses of medication. The sensor is a biomedical application of MEMS technology. Micro-electro-mechanical systems are basically silicone-based microelectronics-"systems on a chip" -that not only sense the environment but can act upon it. The biosensor will come with its own power source, ideally one that will last without replacement for five years. That's currently one of the main obstacles Chiao faces. Another is the array of people involved in the research. "We need to work with mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, cell biologists, medical doctors-and everyone speaks a different language," he says. Doctors, for example, have certain demands for what the device should do and where it should be placed, but they don't necessarily know what is feasible for engineers to build." Still, Chiao says, his entire team is united by one goal: "a passion to create something that will improve people's lives." -PIERRE HOME-DOUGLAS