Hydrogels as Sensors, Actuators and Drug Delivery Materials in a Combined Device

Hydrogels are well-established as actuators, as chemoresponsive materials, and as drug delivery devices. Insulin therapy has proven its effectiveness in the treatment of diabetes, but there are still several limitations, including insulin pump failure, infusion set blockage, infusion site problems, insulin stability issues, and user error, among others. Continuous glucose monitoring also poses some problems, including the need for constant calibration, the adhesion of proteins to sensor surfaces, and a combination of other factors. In this study, we examine the synthesis and characterization of a layered hydrogel system that combines a microfluidic device with both sensing and drug delivery mechanisms that allows for the continuous monitoring of the glucose concentration in a solution and delivers a concentration of drug that is proportional to the concentration of analyte detected in solution. While still in the early stages, this hydrogel system could prove beneficial to the monitoring and treatment of diabetes, while removing several of the limitations of current technologies, by addressing the need for real-time blood glucose monitoring, providing for the accurate dosing of insulin through a solution that integrates the sensor with a drug delivery system, and limits the human error that may exist. We report some early-stage data on hydrogel-based microfluidics and the resulting drug release kinetics of the hydrogel system, including quartz crystal microbalance data.