Preliminary Project Description

A USER-FRIENDLY REUSABLE BIOSENSOR FOR GLUCOSE

Most people do not care about their own sugar level until they are diagnosed with diabetes. It is usually too late to control and leads to an increase in mortality rate. This is the greatest obstacle that we encounter today, and which causes a considerable challenge for prevention and early diagnosis. If people are able to detect the dysfunction of their blood sugar at the early stage, the pre-diabetes can be well-treated thus resulting in a decreasing mortality rate. Although diagnostic methods and devices have already existed to provide reliable tests, either by testing urine glucose or blood glucose. However, the most common way for people to check blood sugar today is to prick a finger and put a drop of blood on the test strip which is only for one-time use. This is really inconvenient and costly, and many people living in poverty cannot afford it.

After carefully evaluating the above-mentioned problem, our team was motivated to make a change in the way to monitor blood sugar. As a result, we designed and provided such a device with a sensor having the ability to detect abnormal levels of sugar content in our urine. This ingenious device was designed to minimize pricking times of the finger and minimizing life style modifications by providing a reusable, non-invasive and accurate ways to monitor real-time urine glucose without interfering normal daily life.

By applying synthetic biology as the application adopting engineering principles, our ultimate goal is to meet the needs for our users. This technique allows us to genetically engineer E. coli with this biosensor. When the glucose level is high, this biosensor can change colors to give an alarm. The more important feature is reusability through the reversible reporter protein that is capable of turning off and on. This new technique empowers everyone, including healthy people, to discover the early warning sign of diabetes.