A WORLD-first saliva test that will "revolutionise" the way people with diabetes manage the disease is set to be manufactured out of a new $12.6 million facility in NSW's Hunter Valley.
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"Lickable" bio-sensors, developed by researchers at the University of Newcastle, could mean the painful finger prick tests that diabetics use to measure blood glucose levels could become obsolete.
The sensors - similar in size to a thin stick of chewing gum - can detect substances in saliva in minute concentrations to deliver "highly accurate" results.
"With this highly sensitive platform, we can now detect glucose at the levels found in saliva, for the first time," University of Newcastle physicist and research leader, Professor Paul Dastoor, said.
"In terms of diabetes, this will revolutionise the way in which diabetes sufferers can manage their disease.
"If you are a diabetes patient, you often have to test regularly throughout the day - that really means pin pricking yourself several times a day to draw blood.
"The holy grail of this has been non-invasive glucose testing."
Professor Dastoor said $6.3 million in federal government funding - matched by their commercial partner GBS Inc.- meant construction of a $12.6 million purpose-built manufacturing facility in the Hunter would begin this year.
He anticipates the first devices will roll off the production line by 2023.
"With more than 460 million people testing their glucose levels regularly, this is a technology with huge demand, and the potential to create significant high-tech jobs growth in our region and beyond," Professor Dastoor said.
"We can print hundreds and thousands of sensors at the moment using our existing factory on campus. The next stage is to scale that up with a purpose-built factory that will allow us to produce 100 million devices a year.
"We have also been funded to develop sensors to pick up biomarkers for cancer, hormones, and for allergens."
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The same technology was also being applied to COVID-19 antibody and antigen tests. Professor Dastoor's team at the Centre for Organic Electronics at Newcastle University has partnered with the Wyss Institute at Harvard University to help develop a non-invasive COVID test.
"We have worked out how we can detect antibodies for COVID," Professor Dastoor said. "We need to be able to test people for COVID very rapidly, even in their own homes. COVID isn't going anywhere fast. In the US, we are looking for emergency clearance release.
"This would be far simpler than anything on the market at the moment."
His team had been working on printed electronics, including solar cells, for the past 20 years.
"But since 2005, we have been working on a different sort of printed electronic device - being able to print biosensors," he said. "We had the idea we could stir in bio-molecules and create a sensor, and we could. The first was an enzyme used to detect glucose, and everything has gone from there.
"We can use almost any enzyme in there.
"The federal government has awarded us $6.3 million, our commercial partner has to put in $6.3, so that's $12.6 million to build this factory.
"It is incredibly exciting."
Professor Dastoor believes initiatives like this would lead to new jobs for the next generation of people working in the Hunter.
"We are still reeling from the news we are going to be able to scale up manufacture and have a biotech and medical device company right here in Newcastle," he said.
"We are a region looking to transfer from its current profile, in terms of employment, to a new one. And I think that new one will be in the area of high technology."