Tattoo tracks sodium and glucose using iPhone

“There’s an app for that” has been a rallying cry for iPhone users for quite some time now, and today, the very same cry is louder than ever. Just what makes this particular app so special? For starters, it will rely on a nanosensor “tattoo” and a modified iPhone so that cyclists are able to better monitor sodium levels in their bodies, helping prevent dehydration before it happens. Prevention, after all, is better than cure, no? As for anemic patients, they too can track their blood oxygen levels with this particular “tattoo”. 

The brainchild of Heather Clark, a professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Northeastern University, a solution that contains carefully chosen nanoparticles will need to be injected into the skin first – and that alone leaves no visible mark. The nanoparticles will then fluoresce when exposed to a target molecule, which is where sodium or glucose falls into place.

The iPhone used cannot be any stock model, it will need to be modified first so that it is capable of tracking changes in the level of fluorescence. I wonder just when something like this will end up as a mainstream product.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Apple, Cellphones, Medical
Tags: iphone app, tattoo