Regarding diabetes, the advances that have been obtained in the improvement of detection methods have been notable, where, recently, a device was released that allows an earlier diagnosis of this disease to be made.
It is Hemogly, a portable device that allows determining in a short time if someone is diabetic, requiring a drop of blood from the patient.
It should be noted that this initiative, finalist of the INNOVAR 2019 National Innovation Contest held in Argentina, is still undergoing some adjustments, but, once it is ready, it can be used in emergency rooms, as well as primary care centers of Health.
The idea came from the mind of Mariana Hamer, Doctor in Pharmacy and Biochemistry, while she was pursuing a CONICET research career at the Institute of Nanosystems at the University of San Martón in Argentina. It was there that he met Roco Thea with whom he would later join efforts in creating a project aimed at the public health sector, using the materials provided by the institute.
Photo: DICYT
According to Hamer, the operation of Hemogly lies in the use of chips to which gold nanoparticles are attached and a recognition molecule, which reacts when finding glycolysed hemoglobin in the blood, a condition generated when the person maintains high levels of glycemia by a period of 3 months.
At the time of using Hemogly it only needs to be connected to a USB socket or port, lighting up when it reaches 409 nanometers, at which point hemoglobin has an absorption band that detects glycolysed hemoglobin. This detection is obtained through a photoresistor, which emits a signal that is processed on an open source microcontroller board, finally showing the result on the OLED screen of the device.
Regarding the size of the device, Hamer said that in the future he hopes to reduce it until he gets an apparatus similar to the size of a pregnancy test.
You can get more information at noticiasdelaciencia.com.
