With diabetes and its associated costs on the rise around the world, effective blood glucose monitoring is considered more important than ever. While conventional methods have required people with diabetes to prick their finger to extract blood drops, non-invasive alternatives, which minimize patients’ pain and discomfort, have been a long-standing dream in diabetes management.

Recently, researchers at the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT), Samsung Electronics, in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), developed an innovative, non-invasive method for monitoring blood glucose levels that utilizes a technique known as Raman spectroscopy. On January 24, the researchers presented their findings in Science Advances, a scientific journal from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Raman spectroscopy is a spectroscopic method that utilizes lasers for chemical composition identification. Previous studies that utilized Raman spectroscopy for glucose sensing in recent decades demonstrated a capability to measure glucose mainly by presenting statistical correlations to the reference glucose concentration. However, those studies raised questions regarding the effectiveness and accuracy of using Raman spectroscopy for glucose measurement due to a lack of direct evidence for glucose sensing.

To break through the limitations that arose in prior studies, Samsung’s researchers developed an off-axis Raman spectroscopy system that enables the direct observation of glucose Raman peaks from in vivo skin. Utilizing this system, they demonstrated one of the highest prediction accuracies among non-invasive technologies. The research team also developed an innovative technique for reducing the effects of movement artifacts on glucose sensing in Raman spectroscopy.

“Non-invasive blood glucose monitoring has been a topic of great discussion for decades, and I believe that our findings will help guide the direction of future studies for non-invasive glucose sensing,” said Dr. Sung Hyun Nam, Master at SAIT’s Mobile Healthcare Lab. “We will continue to solve challenging problems with the belief that this will lead to the commercialization of non-invasive blood glucose sensors, and ultimately help make life easier for people with diabetes.”