No More Needles? Georgetown University Teams with Gentag and SAIC to Develop New Glucose Sensor Technology with Wireless Connection to C...( WASHINGTON June 18 /- Georgetown ...),Health

WASHINGTON, June 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Georgetown University, Gentag, Inc., and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC, NYSE: SAI), have combined forces to develop a non-invasive method for glucose measurement. The three technology leaders agreed to combine their respective intellectual property (IP) and expertise to create a new method to monitor glucose, using disposable skin patches with wireless sensors and cell phones. The resulting products could eliminate the need for finger pricking with lancets to draw blood for people of all ages with diabetes.

"This alliance provides an excellent example of cooperation between academia and industry to bring creative healthcare solutions to the marketplace," said Claudia Stewart, Vice President of Technology Commercialization at Georgetown University.

The combined technology will enable the development of a unique new platform and approach for glucose monitoring and insulin delivery using cell phones. One potential market application could be a disposable, wireless skin patch that measures glucose levels and reports those levels to a cell phone that could also wirelessly control an insulin pump.

By using soft, flexible skin patches, combined with new sensor-chip technology, the traditional pain and discomfort of the current "finger prick" technology could be dramatically reduced or eliminated. The patches would be designed to provide readings once every hour for a 24-hour period. Using cell phones as readers would allow for convenience of a device many already use and are familiar with, as well as many other benefits, including emergency geolocation of patients.

"We expect that this new, painless, disposable, wireless, glucose sensor technology will significantly improve diabetes monitoring worldwide," said John Peeters, founder and president of Gentag, Inc.

With funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) at the Department of Defense, John Currie,
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