UMBI Faculty Featured on Discovery Health Channel in Canada

Baltimore, MD - Dr. Geddes research has generated so much interest that Discovery Canada has aired a web video about it. After a quick visit on April 22, with a camera man and sound tech, the video appeared on Discovery Canada's web site on April 28, 2005. Check it out at http://www.exn.ca/news/video/exn2005/04/28/exn20050428-contact.asx. (Best viewed with Windows Media Player)

December, 2004. A potentially revolutionary approach to sugar monitoring for diabetic patients has recently been invented. Dr. Chris D. Geddes, Associate Professor at UMBI's Medical Biotechnology Center and head of the Institute of Fluorescence, has developed contact lenses capable of measuring glucose in tears, which reflect blood glucose levels. This non-invasive and continuous technique, using innovative fluorescent probes embedded into commercially available lenses, may eliminate the necessity of repeated blood sampling currently used to monitor sugar levels in diabetics. The contact lens changes color in relation to the amount of sugar in tears and can be monitored by the wearer simply looking into a mirror. This work, done in conjunction with Dr. Ramachandram Badugu and Dr. Joseph R. Lakowicz from the Center for Fluorescence Spectroscopy, University of Maryland, Baltimore, was recently reviewed in Nature Materials 3, 76 (2004).

While no human trials have begun, tests with custom-built laboratory "eyes" have shown great promise in being able to accurately sense glucose levels under physiological conditions. The lenses would also make it easier for care-givers to determine glucose levels in the elderly or in children.

Diabetes is the cause of a myriad of long-term health problems, including vascular diseases, blindness, and kidney failure. Its incidence is increasing with increased prevalence of obesity. Long-term effects can be minimized with strict management of glucose levels, but the current, painful blood testing regimens are difficult to follow, especially for children. A non-invasive and continuous monitor of glucose levels will be an incredible breakthrough for the management of this chronic disease

This work was supported out of special funds from the Medical Biotechnology Center.

Figure 1: Experimental lenses: With no glucose the lens is red; with glucose the lens becomes pink.

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Celebrating our 20th anniversary year, UMBI is the first and only biotechnology research institute within the University System of Maryland and was established in 1985. The University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute (UMBI) consists of five major research and education centers and is dedicated to advancing the frontiers of biotechnology. UMBI’s centers of research include: CARB, the Center for Advanced Research in Biotechnology located in Rockville; CBR, the Center for Biosystems Research located in College Park; and COMB, the Center of Marine Biotechnology, MBC, the Medical Biotechnology Center, and IHV, the Institute of Human Virology, all located in Baltimore. For more information, visit www.umbi.umd.edu