Research

Diabetes is a widespread disease, whereby the body is incapable of regulating the metabolism of glucose1 . As a result, this disorder leads to severe health effects such as blindness, kidney failure and stroke1-2 , where monitoring glucose has proven to prevent some of these undesired side effects. Current monitoring methods for diabetes are either invasive or non-continuous, where Brooks et al have introduced contact lenses, on the cover of ACS Nanomaterials, as a sensing platform for noninvasive monitoring1 . This highlights the need for a non-invasive, continuous glucose-monitoring device for personal use1 . Lewis acidic boronic acids (BAs) are widely known for their strong but reversible interactions with diol-containing compounds like glucose1 . This phenomenon has lead to the development and evolution of many fluorescent boronic acid derivatives, where the BA-sugar interaction can be monitored by changes in fluorescence1 . In our group, a range of boronic acid derivatives have been developed and investigated for their direct or indirect glucose sensing capabilities, at physiological pH. When the BA moiety is directly attached to a fluorescent component, the fluorescence of these BA-derivatives becomes quenched in the presence of glucose (Figure 1). The second type of fluorescence change is observed upon integration of the BA moiety and fluorophore in to a two-component system. In these sensors the presence of the BA results in a decrease of fluorescence, which can be restored in the presence of glucose2 . This project aims to incorporate BA derivatives on to flexible polymeric substrates for continuous non-invasive glucose sensing in wearable devices, such as sensing patches or smart contact lenses.