Biosensing Tattoos for Diabetics

For many people with diabetes, keeping tabs on blood sugar every day is expensive, time-consuming and invasive, but researchers at MIT and Harvard are exploring a creative new approach that could one day help make things easier: biosensing tattoos. Scientists have developed special tattoo ink that contains chemicals that can sense blood sugar levels, pH, and sodium. As an example when blood sugar goes up the glucose sensing ink changes from blue to brown. The DermalAbyss ink – still in what scientists call the “proof-of-concept” stage – alters its hues in response to changes in the fluids inside a person’s body, MIT Media Lab researcher Xin Liu told CBS News. The technology is still in the very early research stage Liu pointed out, and has only been tested on animal skin samples, not living, breathing animals – let alone humans. Liu said there are a lot of unknowns in testing it on living skin, including questions about allergies, accuracy and durability.