Sensor checks blood sugar levels by measuring saliva

According to a statement, the technique takes advantage of a convergence of nanotechnology and surface plasmonics, which explores the interaction of electrons and photons.

The engineers at Brown etched thousands of plasmonic interferometers onto a fingernail-size biochip and measured the concentration of glucose molecules in water on the chip.

Their results showed that the biochip could detect glucose levels similar to the levels found in human saliva. Glucose in human saliva is typically about 100 times less concentrated than in the blood.

‘This is proof of concept that plasmonic interferometers can be used to detect molecules in low concentrations, using a footprint that is 10 times smaller than a human hair,’ said Domenico Pacifici, assistant professor of engineering and lead author of a paper on the research published in Nano Letters.

The technique can be used to detect other chemicals or substances, from anthrax to biological compounds, Pacifici said, and detect them at once, in parallel, using the same chip.