BGU researchers engineer a potentially more accurate, faster substance for measuring blood sugar levels.

The BGU team has engineered a new “super enzyme” that can detect the glucose level in the blood. This super enzyme improves on the standard method of checking glucose levels, where a protein is mixed with a drop of blood to cause a chemical reaction. The reaction oxidizes the glucose and turns it into a different molecule. The process then sends electrons to an electrode and the current is interpreted as glucose level.

This complicated process is prone to inaccurate readings: Other substances in the blood, including vitamins or painkillers, can raise the electrical current level and mislead glucose measurements.

The super enzyme, by contrast, detects glucose but is not sensitive to other substances, and returns much quicker responses. This lowers the test-taking time and stands to improve patient compliance.

The research was conducted by Profs. Lital Alfonta and Raz Zarivach along with students Itai Algov and Jennifer Grushka from the Department of Life Sciences. In their report, published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, they conclude that “the fusion enzyme presented can serve as a good candidate for blood glucose monitoring and for other glucose-based bioelectrochemical systems.”