Scribble on your skin and get a glucose reading, simple and painless

The bio-ink’s composition is variable, giving it other potential uses, one of which is detecting pollutants when used to draw sensors onto tree leaves. Photo: AFP

To find out your glucose levels, you could one day pick up a pen with a special bio ink and draw a sensor directly onto your skin.

Nanoengineers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) have developed bio-inks that react with glucose and are capable of measuring it directly on the skin.