This Tattoo Changes Colors As Your Blood Sugar Levels Change
Whether you’re a fan tattoos or would never consider getting one, you’ll have to admit—these are pretty cool. Scientists have developed something called a “biosensing” tattoo that could help change the lives of people living with types 1 or 2 diabetes. How could a tattoo do this, you ask? Well, by changing color along with the person’s blood sugar levels. This new tattoo is the hard work of a team of researchers from Harvard and MIT who call the project Dermal Abyss. The researchers replaced traditional tattoo ink with color-changing “biosensors” that react to variations in the interstitial fluid, which surrounds tissue cells in the human body. “It blends advances in biotechnology with traditional methods in tattoo artistry,” the team writes on their website. “Currently… diabetics need to monitor their glucose levels by piercing the skin 3 to 10 times per day. With Dermal Abyss, we imagine the future where the painful procedure is replaced with a tattoo. Thus, the user could monitor the color changes and the need of insulin.” RELATED: An Artificial Pancreas Could Be On Its Way To Help Those With Type 1 Diabetes The research focuses on four different biosensors that react to three different pieces of biochemical information that are evident in that interstitial fluid. The pH (or acidity) of the fluid changes between purple and pink, the glucose (sugar) sensor changes between blue and brown and the sodium and another pH sensor “fluoresce at a higher intensity under UV light.” Tattoos In Action Curious to see how the biosensing tattoos work? This cool video helps explain the concept. Currently For Research Only If this sounds life-changing to you, don’t get your hopes up quite yet. Right now, DermalAbyss is just a research project. “There Continue reading >>
Harvard Researchers Help Develop Smart Tattoos | Harvard Gazette
Harvard and MIT researchers have developed smart tattoo ink capable of monitoring health by changing color to tell an athlete if she is dehydrated or a diabetic if his blood sugar rises. The work, conducted by two postdoctoral fellows at Harvard Medical School and colleagues led by Katia Vega at MITs Media Lab , paired biosensitive inks developed at Harvard with traditional tattoo artistry as a way to overcome some of the limitations of current biomedical monitoring devices. We were thinking: New technologies, what is the next generation after wearables? said Ali Yetisen , who is a Tosteson postdoctoral fellow at HMS and Massachusetts General Hospital . And so we came up with the idea that we could incorporate biosensors in the skin. A drawback of current wearable monitoring devices is that they dont seamlessly integrate with the body, Yetisen said. Short battery life is a concern and so is the need for wireless connectivity, neither of which is an issue with the simple, color-based interface of biosensitive tattoo ink. We wanted to go beyond what is available through wearables today, Yetisen said. By Alvin Powell, Harvard Staff Writer | December 14, 2011 | Editor's Pick Nan Jiang , a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Womens Hospital, said the project, Dermal Abyss, was conducted as a proof of concept, and that further refinements stabilizing ink so designs dont fade or diffuse into surrounding tissue would be needed for a medical product. HMS postdoctoral fellows Ali Yetisen (left) and Nan Jiang collaborated with MIT researchers to develop the biosensitive tattoo ink, which unlike current wearable monitoring devices, doesnt require batteries or wireless connectivity. The Dermal Abyss tattoo inks change color according to the chemistry of th Continue reading >>
Fact Check: Does A New Tattoo Ink Allow People With Diabetes To Monitor Their Blood Sugar Levels?
Does a New Tattoo Ink Allow People With Diabetes to Monitor Their Blood Sugar Levels? A viral meme describes a promising research project at MIT and Harvard, but so far it has only been tested on the skin of a dead pig. A new tattoo ink changes color depending on a person's glucose levels, meaning people with diabetes can use it to check their blood sugar levels. A research project by students at MIT and Harvard shows promising results, and could lead to a fully-functioning biosensor tattoo ink that reliably indicates glucose levels. The research has so far only been tested on pig skin, has not been subject to rigorous trials, and is still at a relatively early stage. On 9 June 2017, the Dose Facebook page posted a meme claiming that a new kind of tattoo ink changes color based on blood sugar levels, providing a warning system for people with diabetes: This tattoo ink changes color when blood sugar levels rise or fall, so people with diabetes can monitor in real time. The post had been shared more than 300,000 times as of 28 June 2017, and we have received several inquiries about its veracity. It is, indeed, based on real research that students, postdoctoral fellows, and professors are undertaking at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard Medical School. The DermalAbyssproject has not yet been tested on human skin, and is at the proof of concept stage, according to a May2017 report by the MIT Media Lab . Traditional tattoo inks are replaced with biosensors whose colors change in response to variations in the interstitial fluid. It blends advances in biotechnology with traditional methods in tattoo artistry. Interstitial fluid is a layer of fluid that surrounds cells within the body. Measuring the level of glucose (blood sugar) in the fluidis an importa Continue reading >>
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Mit Has Developed Colour-changing Tattoo Ink That Monitors Your Health In Real Time
Researchers have developed a new colour-changing tattoo ink that responds to changes in the body, such as blood sugar and sodium levels. Using a liquid with biosensors instead of traditional ink, scientists want to turn the surface of the human skin into an "interactive display" - an idea that makes this proof-of-concept an exciting one to watch. Technology like this could become a revolutionary new way to monitor health. The project, called DermalAbyss, is a collaboration between researchers from MIT and Harvard Medical School, combining efforts from Fluid Interfaces and biotechnology. So far, the team has developed three different inks that shift colour in response to changes in interstitial fluid - the stuff that sloshes around between our cells, comprising some 16 percent of the human body weight. Of the three sensor inks, the most intriguing is the one that can measure glucose levels. The sensor changes its colour from blue to brown as blood sugar rises. Having a glucose-sensing tattoo could conceivably make life easier to people with diabetes, who have to rely on pin-prick blood tests throughout the day to monitor their glucose. The team has also created an ink that shifts from pink to purple in relation to pH levels, and a third sensor that can detect sodium, shining a vibrant green hue under UV light in the presence of rising salt levels. "The Dermal Abyss creates a direct access to the compartments in the body and reflects inner metabolic processes in a shape of a tattoo," the team writes on the project website. "It could be used for applications in continuously monitoring such as medical diagnostics, quantified self, and data encoding in the body." For someone who has a health condition that requires careful dietary monitoring, or even if you're just a data ne Continue reading >>
Color-changing Tattoos Could Help Millions Monitor Their Health In Real-time
Color-Changing Tattoos Could Help Millions Monitor Their Health in Real-Time A collaboration between MIT and Harvard has yielded a fascinating new way to monitor dynamic levels in blood using color-changing tattoo ink. Though the team has no plans to pursue clinical trials, the technology could foreshadow the future of blood level monitoring. Researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard Medical School have developed a tattoo ink that could provide real-time updates on the bodys health . By making ink that responds to interstitial fluid the liquid in which our cells are suspended the researchers have found a unique way to monitor blood glucose, sodium, and ph levels. The idea of the DermalAbyss project is that an individual would have the ink tattooed onto their body in the pattern of their preference. The tattoo would then change color according to the amount of the activating agent present. A tattoo using the ink designed to respond to glucose levels, for example, would change color from blue to brown as the persons blood sugar level rises. The technology is an ingenious interaction of the body-art, medical, and bio-sensor sectors. While the researchers haveno immediate plans to release their inkto the public, the potential of the project is huge, and others could possibly explore and expand upon it in the future. Aside from the initial tattooing process, the researchers skin interfaces are non-invasive, unlike the methods currently usedto monitor diabetes. Theyre also much harder to damage than current wearable technology. That means the tech could improve millions of lives in the United States alone by helping the 10 percent of the population with diabetes more easily monitor their disease. As stated on the project website ,the technology Continue reading >>
Mit’s Color-changing Tattoos Are Perfect For Diabetics
Cool tat, man: Researchers at MIT and Harvard Medical School have developed color-changing tattoo ink that responds to variations in bodily fluid. Dermal Abyss is a proof-of-concept that turns the body’s surface into an interactive display. “It blends advances in biotechnology with traditional methods in tattoo artistry,” the scientists said, emphasizing that “this is a research project,” and there are no current plans to develop Dermal Abyss or pursue clinical trials. That’s too bad. Because this new science sounds really great—particularly for folks who suffer from diabetes and other medical conditions. Diabetics currently spend their days pricking a finger to monitor the glucose in their blood. But what if that recurring painful procedure could be replaced with a one-time painful procedure—a tattoo? Embedded biosensors transition from blue to brown as the concentration of blood sugar increases, allowing the user to keep an eye on color changes indicating the need for insulin. Similarly, the pH sensor—measuring the alkalinity of interstitial fluid—changes from purple to pink and the sodium sensor fluoresces under a UV light, becoming a more intense green as salt intake grows. “The Dermal Abyss creates a direct access to the compartments in the body and reflects inner metabolic processes in a shape of a tattoo,” according to the MIT website. “I could be used for applications in continuously monitoring such as medical diagnostics, quantified self, and data encoding in the body.” MIT is no stranger to tat tech: Last year, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology introduced temporary tattoos that serve as high-tech wearables. DuoSkin uses off-the-shelf materials and electronic components to design a swipeable UI element directly on your skin. Continue reading >>
The Incredible Colour Changing Tattoos That Monitor The Blood Sugar Levels Of People With Diabetes In Real-time
Researchers have developed a biosensing tattoo ink that reacts to sugar in the blood to help diabetics control their conditions. The colour-changing ink turns the body's surface into an 'interactive display' to alert diabetics when their blood sugar is too low or high. When blood sugar goes up, the glucose sensing ink changes from blue to brown in real-time, a colour change that reverses when blood sugar drops. Scroll down for video ‹ Slide me › The ink senses changes to the body's interstitial fluid - the liquid that surrounds tissue cells in the body. If blood sugar is low, it changes from brown to blue, and if high, it changes from blue to brown. The tattoos could one day act as a non-invasive method for diabetics to control their condition. The ink acts as a biosensor that reads interstitial fluids - the liquids that surround tissue cells in the body. Other biosensing tattoo inks developed by the team, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, monitor the body's salt and pH levels. The salt sensing inks, which track the mineral by measuring sodium levels, fluoresce under UV light, shifting to an intense green when high salt levels are detected. The pH sensing inks respond to alkalinity and change from pink to purple as it increases. The researchers suggest that their tattoo inks, which they say are currently just at the 'proof of concept' stage, could offer new ways of monitoring the body. For diabetics, the glucose sensing ink provides a way to track blood sugar levels without having to prick the skin and take a blood sample every few hours. One biosensing tattoo could tell a diabetic what dose of insulin they needed to re-balance their blood sugar at any time. 'The Dermal Abyss creates a direct access to the compartments in the body and reflects inner me Continue reading >>
Color-changing Tattoo Ink That Monitors Your Health In Real Time
Scientists have created a new revolutionary tattoo ink which changes its color according to certain changes in the body. For instance, changes in the sodium or blood sugar levels. Instead of the usual tattoo ink, researchers use a liquid with biosensors to make the human skin an interactive display. This one-of-a-kind proof-of-concept is surely an interesting one to watch. But, the idea is much more than just interesting. It could become a groundbreaking new method to monitor humans health. The name of the entire project is Dermal Abyss. The team consists of researchers from Harvard Medical School and MIT who are sharing and combining their knowledge on the topic of biotechnology and Fluid Interfaces . So far, they came up with 3 different color-changing inks which respond to changes in the tissue fluid. This solution surrounds the cells and takes about 16% of the total body weight. 3 Different Tattoo Inks and Their Meaning The most exciting ink is the one which changes its color when theres a change in the persons blood sugar levels. As the glucose increases, the ink color changes from blue to brown. This revolutionary invention could ease the everyday life of people with diabetes who have to monitor their blood sugar levels regularly via pin-prick blood tests. Another ink is the pink one that changes its color to purple according to variations in the pH levels in the body. The last ink reveals changes in the sodium levels. You can notice its vivid green color under UV light when the levels of salt increase. Researchers explain more about these unique tattoo inks on the Dermal Abyss website . They say the projects purpose is to detect changes in the inner metabolic state through a tattoo. If you have diabetes or any other health condition that requires regular dietary Continue reading >>
Color-changing Tattoos Aim To Monitor Blood Sugar, Other Health Stats
For many people with diabetes, keeping tabs on blood sugar every day is expensive, time-consuming and invasive, but researchers at MIT and Harvard are exploring a creative new approach that could one day help make things easier: biosensing tattoos. The scientists have developed special tattoo ink that contains chemicals that can sense blood sugar levels, pH, and sodium. When blood sugar goes up, for example, the glucose sensing ink changes from blue to brown. When a person's salt levels increase, the sodium sensing ink becomes a more vibrant green under UV light. When alkaline levels shifts, a pH sensor changes from purple to pink. The DermalAbyss ink – still in what scientists call the "proof-of-concept" stage – alters its hues in response to changes in the fluids inside a person's body, MIT Media Lab researcher Xin Liu told CBS News. It literally becomes an interactive display. "People with diabetes email us and say, 'I want to try it out,'" Liu said. For someone with diabetes who has to prick their finger multiple times a day to test their blood sugar level, or who wears pricey blood glucose monitoring equipment that can be cumbersome during activities like swimming, glancing down at a tattoo to check if blood sugar has dropped or spiked could be a lower-maintenance approach to health monitoring. But the technology is still in the very early research stage, Liu points out, and has only been tested on pig skin samples, not living, breathing animals – let alone humans. Liu said there are a lot of unknowns in testing it on living skin, including questions about allergies, accuracy and durability. "It will take a long time for anything practical to go to market, but it [the technology] evokes imaginations and opens up possibilities," said Liu. For some, the idea of Continue reading >>
A Color-changing Tattoo Will Let You Know Your Blood Sugar Levels At A Glance
A Color-Changing Tattoo Will Let You Know Your Blood Sugar Levels At A Glance Share on Facebook Click me! Share on Twitter Click me! Copy Link Aside from the obvious long-term health issues associated with diabetes, the daily blood sugar checks can serve as their own sort of hardship. Normally, someone suffering from diabetes must draw blood using a special kit once or several times per day. Not only is it a hassle , but the inconvenience of the process can lead to negligence, especially by young sufferers. So anything that makes the process easier, isnt just more convenientits a more effective treatment altogether. With thatease of use in mind, a joint Harvard and MIT research team hasdeveloped a specialized reactive ink that could be tattooed on a diabetes patient, allowing them to check their blood sugar levels by simply registering the color of their body art. The product, still being tested, is known as DermalAbyss ink . The substance, once injected, is reactive, notonly to glucose levels, but also to sodium and even your bodys pH, promising uses beyond the diabetes population. The product has many hurdles to overcome before well see any humans sporting the innovative ink, but the tests performed so far on pig skin, show promise, functionality, and, above all, reliability. Adding an aesthetic element to the process, the ink can be applied in any shape of the wearer'schoosing,as long as its readily visible and readable. I guess that means no lower back tattoos, which, lets be honest, is probably a good thing for everyone involved. Continue reading >>
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Bio-sensing Tattoo Ink To Monitors Glucose And Ph Levels
AARP Membership: Join or Renew for Just$16a Year The project is the result of a collaboration between MIT researchers Katia Vega, Xin Liu, Viirj Kan and Nick Barry and Harvard Medical School researchers Ali Yetisen and Nan Jiang. While there are no current plans to develop DermalAbyss as a product or pursue clinical trials, they hope that the positive response from the media and the public will inspire drug companies and other research industries to push forward with the work they began. The purpose of the work is to light the imagination of biotechnologists and stimulate public support for such efforts, Vega says. Such a tattoo could be particularly useful for patients who have to continuously monitor medical issues such as diabetes. Currently, diabetics typically monitor glucose levels by piercing the skin, sometimes as often as 10 times per day.With DermalAbyss, the researchersforeseea time when the painful procedure is replaced with a tattoo thatchanges color based on insulin need. In addition to glucose, the team explored a sodium biosensor tattoo that could signal changes in hydration levels , and one for pH levels, which measure the balance of acid and alkaline in your body. Preliminary evaluation for the project was done on a pig skin model. There would need to be a great deal of additional safety testing for human use, including research on the toxicity of the sensors. If a product is developed in the future, it could open up opportunities for unique collaborations for the health care industry. We envision new partnerships between the biotech companies and skin professionals such as prosthesis experts and tattooists in order to embrace the idea of human-device symbiosis, Vega says. Even among a healthy population, the tattoos could provide information on overa Continue reading >>
Diabetes Tattoo To Monitor Blood Sugar
We're sorry, an error occurred. We are unable to collect your feedback at this time. However, your feedback is important to us. Please try again later. Hey PWDs: Have you ever read the headline of an article and thought to yourself, Gee, that sounds familiar? That's what we thought last week when news of a nano-tattoo for monitoring blood sugar started popping up again. We first heard about this technology way back in 2002 , and then again in 2009 , and even in 2010 . So is anything really new there? Turns out the latest is that scientists at Northeastern University are integrating iPhones into their research . Dr. Heather Clark and her team in Boston have been hard at work over the years on a tiny, discrete tattoo for glucose sensing. Like a normal tattoo, dye is injected under the skin. But unlike a normal tattoo, the dye has special nanosensors that, when co-mingled with a particular molecule like glucose, "fluoresces" and is detectible by shining a little light on the tattoo. Now Dr. Clark's group has developed an optical device for reading the tattoos that attaches directly to the back of an iPhone (see photo). Patients would be able to see the changes in color that high and low blood sugar produce. Also, the brighter the sensors fluoresce, the higher the blood sugar. How accurate is a system like this? Well, the technology and tools to analyze the florescence are still in development, but Dr. Clark is hopeful that one day patients will be able to dose their insulin based off their tattoo. Eventually her team also wants to develop an iPhone app that will help analyze the blood sugar readings produced. What's also new about the nanotech tattoo is itstiny size, taking up all of 2mm. So we're pretty sure Mom would be OK with this one. "It can only be faintly seen in Continue reading >>
Getting Inked: Tattoos And Diabetes
Though you need to take extra precautions, tattoos are generally safe for people with well-controlled diabetes, and they can even be designed as medical alert identification. Should you get one? Permanent body art has become more and more popular with each generation since World War II, with 38 percent of Millennials (ages 18 to 34 in 2015) and 32 percent of Gen X-ers (ages 35-50) sporting tattoos, according to Pew Research Center. That’s more than twice the number of tattooed Baby Boomers (ages 51 to 69) and five or six times the number of those 67 and over. Ink Identity Tattoos may be a way of identifying with a group, or even a generation, but they are also a way of expressing uniqueness. Most college students surveyed about the process and significance of their tattoos said they considered the pros and cons for months before committing to permanent ink. Most had their tattoos applied at professional studios and were happy with the results. The majority chose an area of their body for tattooing that could be easily covered. Medical Tattoos There are a several reasons why someone might get a tattoo for medical purposes or as result of a medical procedure. A tattoo can cover a disfiguring scar, add a nipple to a reconstructed breast or redirect light away from a damaged eye. Researchers are currently working on “smart” tattoos that use nanoparticle ink or tiny LEDs implanted in the skin to keep track of glucose levels. Meanwhile, inked wrists and forearms have begun to replace medical alert bracelets for some people who require special attention in an emergency, such as anyone who uses insulin or is allergic to specific types of medication. If you dislike, or often forget to wear, medical alert jewelry, you may be more likely to consider a diabetes alert tattoo. Continue reading >>
Creating Diabetes Tattoos That Sense Changes In Blood Sugar
It’s not often that the words “cool” and “diabetes” get used in the same sentence, but researchers at MIT and Harvard have joined the two concepts with an idea for creating tattoos that change color based on the blood sugar level of the person wearing them. The project has the oddly dystopian name of the Dermal Abyss (or, as they call it d-abyss) and is a collaboration between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab and Harvard Medical School, according to Katia Vega, a post doctoral associate at MIT and a member of the team. “The Dermal Abyss is a proof-of-concept that illustrates the potential of culturally and medically integrated biosensors,” Vega says. “They are biosensor tattoos that visibly react to changes in the metabolism. The purpose of the work is to light the imagination of biotechnologists and stimulate public support for such efforts.” The tattoos they designed will not be showing up in a pharmacy or tattoo shop any time soon. “The purpose of the work is to highlight a novel possibility for biosensors rather than bring a medical device to market,” Vega says. “As such, there are currently no plans to develop the Dermal Abyss as a product or to pursue clinical trials.” Like a hot concept car, there is real technology in the tattoos that were produced for the project. Various iterations of the tattoos sense changes not only in glucose but in pH, which can indicate dehydration and changes in sodium ion, which can give indications of hypertension. For glucose, the colors change from a light blue at a reading of five, and go through five shade changes until it’s dark brown at a reading of 110. The team at d-abyss inserted biosensors in place of traditionally used tattoo ink into skin from a pig at a depth of 10 millimeter Continue reading >>
Biosensing Tattoo Changes Color When Your Blood Sugar Levels Change
Having type 1 or 2 diabetes requires a person to always know what their blood sugar levels are. This normally takes time and can be quite invasive – normally people prick their finger with a special device and place a small drop of blood on a testing strip. Others have a device implanted just under their skin that continuously measures their blood sugar levels and sends the information to an external device. A team of researchers at Harvard and MIT have now come up with a rather curious alternative. Using a specialized ink, they have come up with a biosensing tattoo, one that will change color depending on your blood sugar levels. Known as DermalAbyss ink – currently still in the proof-of-concept stage and not available to the general public – it is able to track pH levels, as well as sodium and glucose concentrations within your bloodstream. Too much glucose and the ink becomes brown. Too much sodium and it becomes green (under UV light, at least). Purples and pinks indicate a changing pH level. “The DermalAbyss ink presents a novel approach to biointerfaces in which the body’s surface is rendered as an interactive display,” the team explain in a promotional video. The dynamic ink isn’t directly hooked up to your bloodstream, to be fair; it’s actually monitoring your interstitial fluid, a substance that surrounds the tissue cells of animals. Water, ions and small solutes – including salts, sugars, fatty and amino acids and hormones – are constantly making their way through this fluid across the walls of your capillaries. DermalAbyss: Possibilities of Biosensors as a Tattooed Interface from Fluid Interfaces on Vimeo. At present, it’s only been tested on pig skin, which is very similar to our own. However, it definitely works – but human trials ar Continue reading >>
