Wanna know what I do? Part 1

I've been saying that I'd tell everyone what my research project is for the last little while. Since I've been preparing for my seminar happening this Friday, I've been spending the week preparing handouts and slides for my 10 minutes worth of fame this Friday. I figure that now is a better time than any to introduce my work to you (sort of).

Let me start with my first research project, (I will post my current project later today when I can post my presentation online).

Since comming to this lab, I was interested in developing micro-machined wireless communication devices and was looking for medical applications. I was initially set to work on a micro-technology implantable based glucose sensor and spent my first month at the lab researching papers and reading online materials to figure out what is going on in the field.

The proposed system was to use a semi-permiable membrane (remember that word from high-school science?) to glucose that would let glucose diffuse into a chamber containing a sensitive fluid. This fluid would change viscosity which is telling of current body glucose concentrations (note: viscosity is how sticky a fluid is). The viscosity could be detected using a vibrating cantiliver (read: vibrating stick) in the chamber that could be excited by an ultra-sonic pulse from outside of the body (think: sound exciting a tuning fork). You see, the viscosity of the glucose sensitive fluid would determine the vibrating frequency of the cantiliver. This means that if I listen to the cantiliver, I can determine the glucose concentration in the body using ultrasound. Get it? I'm sure you did (research doesn't necessarily have to be tough).

After doing some reading on biotech MEMs technology, I had reached the conclusion that this device would *suck.* The human body has an inherent reaction to foreign objects implented the body by covering them in the body with an isolating protein layer from reading bio-tech books. What this means is that the sensitive permiable membrane gets covered after a few months and is rendered useless. Immuno responses to implanted microsensors that require a physical interface to the inside of the body are impractical. This means that until we figure out a way to prevent the body from gumming up the sensors like these, these sensors are useless. But to solve this, is an entirely different problem (which is also not in my realm of expertise).

Had I accepted the projet at face value, I would have been screwed. Remember, do your homework properly because it'll save you from trouble and reward you later. Read on.

So what next? I discovered some technology being developed by Animas Corporation, who have a bright idea (literally) on the subject. They are currently developing technology to use light in an implantable sensor to determine glucose concentration. By observing how much light is absorbed (or was it frequency? I don't remember anymore), they can determine glucose concentration. The smart thing is that this technology is using light frequencies that don't get blocked by the insulating protein later. Smart, no? There is a detail of keeping it powered, meaning they are going to need either a battery or a wireless way of transmitting power, but I think those are more managable problems.

Anyways, I thought that it was much smarter than my idea (and my professors weren't too keen on my idea of using micro-needle patches on the outside of the body as a work around) that I decided to drop the project all together. Animas corporation was bought out by Johnson and Johonson a month later after I finished my analysis, sending the stock of Animas Corpotation to spike by 33% in a day in December of 2005. I was on the money for my analysis. Too bad I didn't put my money where my mouth was.

My real project will be posted later tomorrow.