an enzyme that identifies glucose into a transistor that can then transmit the presence of glucose. According to him, the tests open up the pathway for painless, economical glucose testing, which will eventually derive better results for diabetics.
Dastoor explained the advantages of the saliva glucose test over blood glucose test. He said, “Your saliva has glucose in it and that glucose concentration follows your blood glucose. But it is a concentration about 100 times lower which means that we had to develop a test that is low cost, easy to manufacture, but that has sensitivity about 100 times higher than standard glucose blood test”. Dastoor added, “The materials that we work with are remarkable, they are electronic inks that can act as electronic material, but the difference is that we can print them at massive scale using a reel-to-reel printer, the same that you use to make newspapers”.
As the transistor’s electronic materials are inks, the test can be done through low-cost printing. If the clinical studies are successful, the project will get A$6.3 million ($4.7 million) investment support from the Australian government to build a factory to manufacture the test kits. According to Dastoor, the technology might also be used for COVID-19 testing as well as allergy, hormone, and cancer testing. The university is already teamed up with Harvard University for a COVID-19 test utilizing the same technology.
