No More Needles? Georgetown University Teams with Gentag and SAIC to Develop New Glucose Sensor Technology with Wireless Connect
18 June 2008 - 9:00PM
PR Newswire (US)
WASHINGTON, June 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Georgetown University, Gentag,
Inc., and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC,
NYSE: SAI), have combined forces to develop a non-invasive method
for glucose measurement. The three technology leaders agreed to
combine their respective intellectual property (IP) and expertise
to create a new method to monitor glucose, using disposable skin
patches with wireless sensors and cell phones. The resulting
products could eliminate the need for finger pricking with lancets
to draw blood for people of all ages with diabetes. "This alliance
provides an excellent example of cooperation between academia and
industry to bring creative healthcare solutions to the
marketplace," said Claudia Stewart, Vice President of Technology
Commercialization at Georgetown University. The combined technology
will enable the development of a unique new platform and approach
for glucose monitoring and insulin delivery using cell phones. One
potential market application could be a disposable, wireless skin
patch that measures glucose levels and reports those levels to a
cell phone that could also wirelessly control an insulin pump. By
using soft, flexible skin patches, combined with new sensor-chip
technology, the traditional pain and discomfort of the current
"finger prick" technology could be dramatically reduced or
eliminated. The patches would be designed to provide readings once
every hour for a 24-hour period. Using cell phones as readers would
allow for convenience of a device many already use and are familiar
with, as well as many other benefits, including emergency
geolocation of patients. "We expect that this new, painless,
disposable, wireless, glucose sensor technology will significantly
improve diabetes monitoring worldwide," said John Peeters, founder
and president of Gentag, Inc. With funding from the Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) at the Department of
Defense, John Currie, a professor of Physics and director of
Georgetown Advanced Electronics Laboratory (GAEL), Mak Paranjape,
an associate professor of Physics and researcher at GAEL Health
Microsystems at Georgetown, and SAIC researchers Thomas Schneider
and Robert White, who worked in the area of
micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), initially developed the
skin patch technology to monitor the status of soldiers in a
battlefield. The SAIC and Georgetown glucose sensor technology has
been developed for DARPA and can be combined with Gentag's cell
phone RFID-sensor reader platform technology. Under the terms of
the agreement, Gentag, Georgetown and SAIC have agreed to pool
their IP and to sell or license the combined technology to a
company developing glucose monitors or insulin-delivery systems
under a competitive bidding process. The technology is protected by
twenty-one issued and pending U.S. and international patents.
Diabetes is a growing international health problem. In the United
States, medical expenditures totaled $116 billion in 2007 and were
comprised of $27 billion for diabetes care, $58 billion for chronic
diabetes-related complications, and $31 billion for excess general
medical costs according to the American Diabetes Association. For
more information about acquisition or licensing terms, please
contact Claudia Stewart, Vice President, Office of Technology
Commercialization, Georgetown University at (202)-687-7424 or at .
About Gentag Gentag, Inc. is a technology development company
focusing on the creation of innovative, low-cost, wireless sensor
technologies based on cell phones. The company owns a unique
intellectual property portfolio relating to cell-phone sensor
combinations and wireless sensor networks and was recently awarded
Frost & Sullivan's 2008 North American Award for Technology
Innovation. For more information, visit http://www.gentag.com/.
About Georgetown University Georgetown University is the oldest and
largest Catholic and Jesuit university in America, founded in 1789
by Archbishop John Carroll. Georgetown today is a major
student-centered, international, research university offering
respected undergraduate, graduate and professional programs in
Washington, DC, Doha, Qatar and around the world. For more
information about Georgetown University, visit
http://www.georgetown.edu/. Additional Links
http://otc.georgetown.edu/ Office of Technology Commercialization
at Georgetown University http://www.gentag.com/ Gentag, Inc.
http://www.saic.com/ Science Applications International Corporation
(SAIC)
http://www1.georgetown.edu/college/research/molecules/14886.html
Georgetown Advanced Electronics Laboratory (GAEL) DATASOURCE:
Georgetown University; Gentag, Inc. CONTACT: Rachel Pugh of
Georgetown, +1-202-687-4328, ; or Marc Onigman of Gentag,
+1-617-413-2830, Web site: http://www.georgetown.edu/
http://www.gentag.com/ http://www.saic.com/
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