According to CNBC, the life of Alphabet's life sciences corporation Verily has halted the process of the "smart lens" program that can measure blood sugar, and the program tries to have a microsensor embedded in the lens of contact lenses, to detect blood sugar levels in tears.
Previously, this Google brothers attempted to integrate micro sensors into contact lenses to measure the level of glucose in tears, thereby helping diabetic patients to monitor blood sugar and change the invasive test pattern that is currently needed to puncture the skin.
However, Verily said in a blog post on Friday that after four years of research the company has determined that testing blood sugar levels through tears is a very difficult, if not impossible, technical and scientific goal. "Our clinical research on glucose sensor lenses shows a lack of sufficient consistency between tear glucose and blood glucose concentration measurements to support medical device requirements," the blog post said.
Verily says that the experiments under controlled conditions did have some success, but the eye conditions changed so much that the tests were not successful. The problem goes beyond Verily research.
Was called "Google Life science" (Google Life Sciences) Verily in 2014 announced the launch of the project, and owned by alcon eye care department cooperation, caused a sensation. Over the past few years, however, the project has kept a low profile, amid speculation that it is winding down.
Overall, such programs have cost billions of dollars, but technology and life sciences companies have yet to succeed. There is even a book devoted to The failure, The Pursuit of Noninvasive Glucose measurement: Hunting The Deceitful Turkey.
But tech companies like Google and apple are still very interested in such research, because for millions of people, a noninvasive glucose test would be a game-changer. According to the centers for disease control and prevention, more than 100 million people in the United States alone have diabetes or near-illness, and many of them have to prick their fingers several times a day to monitor blood sugar levels.
