Many of the debilitating effects of diabetes can by mitigated by monitoring the concentration of glucose in the blood or in the interstitial fluid that surrounds the organs. But doing so continuously requires implantable glucose sensors, and these devices have proved difficult to design, despite 40 years of research1. One reason is that the human body often responds by forming a fibrous shell around the implanted device, which can affect its performance. This reaction is caused mainly by an immune response that occurs because the electronic components of an implanted sensor are much stiffer than the surrounding tissues. Writing in Nature, Tang et al.2 propose a clever method that could help to circumvent this problem, by using a soft biocompatible material that allows the harder components to be positioned on the surface of the skin.
Competing Interests
J.J.M. has a financial interest in Applied Biosensors, Inc., Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
