Release date: 2017-04-07 Most people wear contact lenses for aesthetics. Can you imagine one day wearing contact lenses for health? Researchers at Oregon State University are working on an experiment that uses ultra-thin transistor technology to develop contact lenses that measure blood sugar and predict health problems. A team led by Oregon State University professor Gregory Herman developed a transparent biosensor that attaches the sensor to a contact lens to detect the symptoms of many diseases. At this stage, this product can only measure blood sugar levels, but the R&D team believes that in the near future, it can be used to measure other vital signs, alert health problems, and may even warn of cancer. A few years later, on the pharmacy shelf, you might find this special contact lens. However, the R&D team still faces many technical challenges. On April 5th, the study was presented at the 253th ACS (American Chemical Society) exhibition. The original intention of this study was to help people with diabetes. Diabetes patients can now monitor blood glucose levels by implanting sensors subcutaneously. However, subcutaneous implantation can cause problems such as pain, skin irritation, and infection. In contrast, disposable biosensing contact lenses have obvious advantages. Contact lenses are more practical and safe, and cause almost no trauma. A few years ago, Herman and his colleagues came up with the idea of ​​using semiconductors made of gallium zinc oxide compounds in diagnostic medicine. Such semiconductors have revolutionized electronics, making it possible to bring HDTVs, smartphones, and tablets. When making contact lens samples, the researchers first made a biosensor consisting of a transparent gallium zinc oxide transistor slice and a glucose oxidase slice. When the sensor is in contact with glucose, the glucose oxidase oxidizes the blood glucose, so that the pH of the sensor changes, and the blood glucose level can be measured by the current flowing through the gallium zinc oxide transistor. The gallium zinc oxide biosensor has tiny nanostructures that allow the sensor to detect trace amounts of glucose in the tears. According to Herman's statistics, on gallium zinc oxide contact lenses, 2,500 biodetectors can be accommodated per square millimeter, and each detector can detect different vital signs of the human body. Every drop of human tears contains a lot of human information. In addition to blood sugar values, future contact lenses will also be able to monitor lactic acid (related to sepsis and liver disease), dopamine (related to glaucoma), urinary toxin (related to kidney function), and protein. (related to cancer) and other human values. The goal of the R&D team is to extend from a sensor to a few sensors on a contact lens. But now, biosensors can only measure blood sugar levels, and other data can not be measured, waiting for time to test. This biosensor is still in development and is not officially combined with contact lenses. Ideally, the data for the final result will be propagated by radio and the radio signal can directly charge the contact lens. At this stage, data has not been transmitted from sensors to other devices, and researchers still need to conduct further research on methods to control current. In 2014, Google also had a similar program for use in the field of diagnostic medicine. However, Herman believes that his research will go a step further and that the R&D team can make all the components of the contact lens transparent and invisible. Unlike the transparent gallium zinc oxide transistors used by the Herman team, Google is sandwiching a micro-wireless chip and a miniature blood glucose detector between two layers of contact lenses. If you want to make disposable gallium zinc oxide contact lenses, then its price can not be too expensive. However, Herman believes that controlling costs is not a problem. The gallium zinc oxide ultra-thin transistor technology they use is very similar to the technology used in the manufacture of mobile phones. The price of 100 transistors in mobile phones is not 10 cents (about 6 cents and 8 cents), so there is no need to worry about the cost of gallium zinc oxide. problem. However, the cost of other aspects still needs to be controlled. Whether the price of this contact lens can be really low is still open to question. Ideally, within a year, researchers can experiment with biosensor-based contact lenses on animals. Although the study was only published at ACS on April 5th, relevant research papers have been published in the journal Nanoscale and Applied Materials & Interfaces. Source: gizmodo Source: Tencent Digital The automatic biochemical analyzer is an instrument that measures a specific chemical composition in body fluids according to the principle of photoelectric colorimetry. Due to its fast measurement speed, high accuracy and small consumption of reagents, it has been widely used in hospitals, epidemic prevention stations and family planning service stations at all levels. The combined use can greatly improve the efficiency and benefits of routine biochemical testing. Bio Chemistry Analyzer, Clinical Chemistry Analyzer, Blood Chemistry Analyzer,Urine Chemistry Analyzer Jilin Sinoscience Technology Co. LTD , https://www.contoryinstruments.com
principle
The automatic analyzer is to automatically run all or part of the steps of sampling, mixing, warm bath (37°C) detection, result calculation, judgment, display and printing results and cleaning in the original manual operation process. Today, biochemical tests are basically automated analysis, and there are fully automatic biochemical analysis systems designed for large or very large clinical laboratories and commercial laboratories, which can be arbitrarily configured according to the laboratory's testing volume.
Whether it is the fastest-running (9600Test/h) modular fully automatic biochemical analyzer today, or the original manual-operated photoelectric colorimeter for colorimetry, the principle is the use of absorption spectroscopy in spectroscopic technology. It is the most basic core of the biochemical instrument.
Optical system: is a key part of ACA. Older ACA systems used halogen tungsten lamps, lenses, color filters, and photocell assemblies. The optical part of the new ACA system has been greatly improved. ACA's beam splitting system can be divided into front splitting and rear splitting due to different light positions. The advanced optical components use a set of lenses between the light source and the cuvette to convert the original light source. The light projected by the lamp passes through the cuvette to bring the beam to the speed of light (unlike traditional wedge beams), so that the spot beam can pass through even the smallest cuvette. Compared with traditional methods, it can save reagent consumption by 40-60%. After the spot beam passes through the cuvette, the spot beam is restored to the original beam through this group of restoration lenses (wide difference correction system), and is divided into several fixed wavelengths (about 10 or more wavelengths) by the grating. The optical/digital signal direct conversion technology is used to directly convert the optical signal in the optical path into a digital signal. It completely eliminates the interference of electromagnetic waves to the signal and the attenuation in the process of signal transmission. At the same time, the optical fiber is used in the signal transmission process, so that the signal can achieve no attenuation, and the test accuracy is improved by nearly 100 times. The closed combination of the optical path system makes the optical path without any maintenance, and the light splitting is accurate and the service life is long.
Constant temperature system: Since the temperature of the biochemical reaction has a great influence on the reaction results, the sensitivity and accuracy of the constant temperature system directly affect the measurement results. The early biochemical instruments used the method of air bath, and later developed into a dry bath with constant temperature liquid circulation which combines the advantages of dry air bath and water bath. The principle is to design a constant temperature tank around the cuvette, and add a stable constant temperature liquid that is odorless, non-polluting, non-evaporating and non-deteriorating in the tank. The constant temperature liquid has a large capacity, good thermal stability and uniformity. The cuvette does not directly contact the constant temperature liquid, which overcomes the characteristics of the water bath type constant temperature being susceptible to pollution and the uneven and unstable air bath.
Sample reaction stirring technology and probe technology: The traditional reaction stirring technology adopts magnetic bead type and vortex stirring type. The current popular stirring technology is a stirring unit composed of multiple groups of stirring rods that imitate the manual cleaning process. When the first group of stirring rods is stirring the sample/reagent or mixed solution, the second group of stirring rods performs high-speed and high-efficiency cleaning at the same time. The set of stirring bars also undergoes a warm water washing and air drying process at the same time. In the design of a single stirring rod, a new type of spiral high-speed rotating stirring is adopted, and the rotation direction is opposite to the spiral direction, thereby increasing the stirring force, the stirred liquid does not foam, and reducing the scattering of light by microbubbles. Reagent and sample probes are based on the principle of early capacitive sensing, but slightly improved to increase the alarm of blood clots and protein clots, and re-test results according to the alarm level, reducing sample aspiration errors and improving the reliability of test results. . Large-scale biochemical instruments can detect more than 1,000 tests per hour, so automatic retesting is very important. Subjective evaluation of test results and manual retesting can no longer meet clinical needs.
Other aspects: barcode recognition of reagents and samples and computer login. Due to the lack of barcode recognition function of early biochemical instruments, there are more opportunities for errors. In recent years, both imported and domestic chemical instruments have adopted barcode detection. The use of this technology in biochemical instruments has provided technical support for the development of high-speed ACA, and also made the instrument quite supportive. The software development is simple and easy, therefore, barcode detection is the basis for the intelligence of the instrument. Open reagents, as an important factor for hospitals to choose models, whether the instrument supports open reagents is very important. After the reagents are opened, hospitals and scientific research units can choose their own reagent suppliers, and have a greater degree of freedom in measuring the price, the reliability of the test results, and the validity period of the reagents. Ion Selective Electrode Analysis Accessory (ISE), human serum and urine electrolyte indicators are very important, and hospitals can save money by adding ISE to the ACA system.