TOWARDS PAIN-FREE AND HIGH-ACCURACY POINT-OF-CARE GLYCEMIC CONTROL USING CAPILLARITY-DRIVEN MICRONEEDLES

In this work, a novel class of self-powered microneedle-based transdermal biosensors for pain-free and high accu- racy measurement of glycaemia in interstitial fluid (ISF) is reported. Autonomous, effective, and fast uptake of interstitial fluid is demonstrated by exploiting capillarity in silicon dioxide microneedles with diameter of a few micrometers and density of thousands needles/cm2. Further, high accuracy and high reproducibility real-time measurement of glucose concentration in ISF is demonstrated by coupling the microneedles with an enzymatic glucose biosensor, achieving Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved performance in-vitro. Finally, an easy-to-use handy glucometer exploiting the microneedles operating under capillary-action for (future) effective point-of-care glycaemic control is designed, fabricated, and validated in-vitro.