Collaboration between ASU, Mayo supported by BioAccel

March 17, 2011

By hammersmith

Arizona State University and Mayo Clinic are developing a new device that could put an end to the painful finger pricking that patients with diabetes must endure on a daily basis.

The project, funded first by a seed grant from Mayo Clinic, now also has support from BioAccel, an Arizona-based nonprofit organization focused on accelerating the commercialization of bioscience technology.

The new sensor would enable people to draw tear fluid from their eyes to get a glucose-level test sample.

Glucose in tear fluid may give an indication of glucose levels in the blood as accurately as a test using a blood sample, the researchers say.

“The problem with current self-monitoring blood glucose technologies is not so much the sensor,” says Jeffrey T. LaBelle, a bioengineer. “It’s the painful finger prick that makes people reluctant to perform the test. This new technology might encourage patients to check their blood sugars more often, which could lead to better control of their diabetes by a simple touch to the eye.”

LaBelle, the designer of the device technology, is a research professor in the School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering, one of ASU’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering. He is leading the ASU-Mayo research team along with Mayo Clinic physicians Curtiss B. Cook, an endocrinologist, and Dharmendra (Dave) Patel, chair of Mayo’s Department of Surgical Ophthalmology. The team reported on their early work on the sensor in the Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology last year and at various regional and national conferences.

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“With funding provided by BioAccel, the research team will conduct critical experiments to determine how well the new device correlates with use of the current technology that uses blood sampling,” says Ron King, BioAccel’s chief scientific and business officer.

The results should help efforts to secure downstream funding for further development work from such sources as the National Institutes of Health and the Small Business Incentive Research Program, King says.

Read more at the source: “ASU, Mayo Clinic team work to help diabetes patients