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. 2025 Apr 9:19322968251331072.
doi: 10.1177/19322968251331072. Online ahead of print.

Measuring the Mechanical Properties of Insulin: A Potential Solution to Overcoming the Challenges of Real-Time, Point-of-Care Insulin Sensing

Emily Young  1 , Stefanie Gutschmidt  1 , J Geoffrey Chase  1
Affiliations

Measuring the Mechanical Properties of Insulin: A Potential Solution to Overcoming the Challenges of Real-Time, Point-of-Care Insulin Sensing

Emily Young et al. J Diabetes Sci Technol. .

Abstract

It is well established real-time, point-of-care capabilities for insulin sensing would provide valuable insight to enhance diabetes management and care in the human body. However, such suitable technology has not yet been developed or commercialized. While not comprehensive, this commentary provides a concise summary of the motivation and challenges of developing real-time, point-of-care insulin sensing technology and offers some comments on current approaches. This short research analysis presents a new perspective on the problem and introduces a future potential solution via measuring the mechanical properties of insulin and discusses the challenges foreseen in the feasibility of this proposed solution.

Keywords: diabetes; insulin detection; micro-electro-mechanical-systems; point-of-care.

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Conflict of interest statement

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Schematics of mechanics-based insulin sensor concepts (not to scale). (a) Mass sensor. (b) Viscosity sensor. (c) Surface tension sensor.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Summary of the development toward real-time, point-of-care insulin detection (schematics not to scale).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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