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Editorials |
1 Abbott Laboratories, Diagnostics Division, 100 Abbott Park Rd., Abbott Park, IL 60064, E-mail Omar.khalil@abbott.com
| The first 20% of the full text of this article appears below. |
Most noninvasive (NI) methods for the determination of glucose either detect a small specific glucose signal or measure the effect of glucose on a tissue optical property (1)(2). A recent review identified the three main issues in NI glucose measurements as specificity, compartmentalization of glucose values, and calibration (1). This editorial discusses a photonic crystal method (3), with respect to these issues.
Ashers group have developed a novel photonic sensing material that responds to glucose concentrations via diffraction of visible light. Polymerized crystalline colloidal arrays (PCCAs) are periodic crystalline lattices of polystyrene microspheres polymerized within thin hydrogel films (3)(4)(5)(6)(7). The arrays are brightly colored and act as diffraction gratings for white light according to the Bragg diffraction equation (4)(5):
![]() | (1) |
is the diffracted wavelength, and
is the glancing angle between the incident light and the diffracting planes. A change in electric charge in the PCCAs resulting from binding of molecular or ionic species causes changes the spacing, d, and there is a subsequent wavelength shift, 
, of the light reflected off the array.
Ashers group have constructed a photonic glucose sensor in the form of thin acrylamide PCCA hydrogel films that contain glucose molecular recognition elements (3)(6)(7). Phenylboronic
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