Sweet Insight: Broadband Reflection Spectroscopy for Glucose Analysis

With almost a half-billion people globally managing diabetes, and with a cost of over $750 billion annually, the need to monitor blood glucose levels in a convenient and cost-effective way has never been greater. Current methods such as finger-pricks are painful, inconvenient, and not always accurate. By allowing a rapid optical approach, monitoring could be done non-invasively and offers the potential for continuous monitoring with a wearable device.

Guenther discusses the capabilities and limitations of various broadband spectroscopy approaches to detect aqueous glucose levels in idealized and biological scenarios. By using broadband reflection, signals related to glucose concentration can be extracted with various efficiencies in different settings, such as through biological tissue. This talk sets the foundation for deeper work around those most promising approaches and how they can be developed into consumer-ready devices.

About the presenter
Derek Guenther has a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering, with a minor in inorganic chemistry, from the University of South Florida (USF). His work at the USF Institute for Environmental Studies focused on novel silica-based algaecides targeting invasive species. Guenther’s strengths and passions lie in new chemical sensor development and spectral numerical processing. He has spent 15 years at Ocean Optics developing and supporting optical oxygen, pH, and SERS-based sensor products. Today, he works with the strategic marketing and lab services teams helping customers achieve their goals.