Glucose takes the pace

摘要

Glucose in the blood could power a pacemaker in such a way that it would work continuously in the patient's body for their entire life.rnThis is one of the possibilities Manchester University materials science professor Brian Derby sees for a technology that uses industrial inkjet printers to print miniature enzyme-based devices.rnDerby is leading a Technology Strategy Board-funded project that aims to make fragile enzymes as sturdy as normal print ink. He and his colleagues at partner Applied Enzyme Technology (AET) are developing enzyme solutions that will be dripped, in picolitre-sizedrndrops, onto carbon electrodes every other microsecond, at operating frequencies above 5kHz.rnDerby said these high sheer rates would normally damage proteins and denature them.