Sensoretiketter för glukosmätning tillverkade med tryckt elektronik till ultralåg kostnad Ultra low cost glucometer labels fabricated with printed electronics 347 miljoner människor världen över lider av diabetes. Världshälsoorganisationen WHO beräknar att diabetes kommer att vara den 7:e vanligaste dödsorsaken år 2030. Mer är 80% av dödsfallen sker i låg- och medelinkomstländer eftersom sjukdomen kräver en kostsam daglig behandling för vilken det saknas resurser. En betydande del av kostnaden utgörs av mätning av glukosnivån i blodet med hjälp av blodsockermätare och mätsticka. I detta projekt vill vi demonstrera att tekniker för massproduktion, såsom tryckning, kan användas tillsammans med radikalt nya sensorkoncept och nya elektroniska material för att tillverka en blodsockermätare på en bit papper. Detta skulle kunna reducera kostnaden för blodsockermätning med en faktor 50 och göra den tillgänglig för många fler diabetespatienter, vilket skulle förebygga ett stort antal följdsjukdomar och dödsfall.    Vårt forskningsprogram består av flera forskningsområden som inte tidigare har kopplats samman: tryckt elektronik, elektronik i molekylära övergångar, samt biosensorer. Projektet ligger därmed i framkant inom materialvetenskap och elektronik samtidigt som det motiveras av en tydlig tillämpning och en framtida produkt. Vi är medvetna om att det tar tid för radikalt nya teknologier att nå marknaden. På grund av den angelägna situationen i många låginkomstländer söker vi därför planera för att reducera mognadstiden så långt det är möjligt. Projektet är multidisciplinärt med behov av kompetens inom såväl kemi, fysik, elektronik. Det genomförs av forskare vid Linköpings Universitet i samarbete med  Bujumbura Universitetet i Burundi. 347 million people worldwide have diabetes. World Health Organization (WHO) projects that diabetes will be the 7th leading cause of death in 2030. More than 80% of diabetes deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries because dealing with such a disease requires a daily treatment that is too expensive. A major cost is the measurement of glucose level in the blood with a glucometer and a strip. In this project, we want to demonstrate that mass-production techniques, such as printing, can be used in combination with radically new sensor concept and novel electronic materials to fabricate a glucometer on a piece of paper: "the glucometer label". This would reduce the cost of a glucometer system by 50 times and make it affordable for many more diabetes patients, thus preventing the worse disabling consequences of diabetes as well as death.      Our research proposal lies at the intersection of several sub-research areas that have not been put together in the past: printed electronics, molecular-junction electronics and biosensors. So, this project is lying at the fore-front of materials science and electronics but has a clear path and motivation towards application and product. We are aware that radically new technologies takes time to reach the market. Because of the urgency of the situation in low-income countries, we try to plan at best to reduce the maturation time. The multidisciplinary character expresses it-self by the need of chemistry, physics, electronics, biology and medicine. This is a 5-year project that will be realized at Linköping University in collaboration with the University of Bujumbura (Burundi).     We will start from our recent technological breakthrough: We succeeded to print (in air, without any high temperature annealing) the first resonant tunneling diode working up to 1.5GHz (Published in PNAS and commented in Nature 511, 267(2014)). The integration of a chemical sensing function in a resonant tunneling diode has not been considered up to now. But the architecture of our device is very suitable since the analyte (glucose) can easily reach the sensing region and that the current in the diode can only passes through the sensing region. The sensing region consists of a self-assembled monolayer located between the Si particles and the metal foil. Specially designed molecular junctions can react with glucose and change the tunneling current in the diode. We will use a battery of material characterization methods and theoretical prediction tools to design the best molecular recognition systems and the most efficient device architecture. Finally, we will design and fabricate a full circuit for the "glucometer label" including an electrochromic display that indicates directly the level of glucose to the patient.     Our research environment is unique because it can bring fundamental research to product. The Laboratory of Organic Electronics (www.orgel.itn.liu.se) together with the research institute Acreo (Swedish ICT) we have developed the Printed Electronics Arena (PEA). PEA is one of the few European researches manufacturing laboratory (www.printedelectronicsarena.com) performing product development and scaling up the manufacturing of printed electronics, as well as dealing with intellectual properties and business creation. Hence, the results of this Vetenskaprådet project will be a new seed that can grow in the future in a healthy research environment. The development of printed glucometers for low income countries is urgent and crucial as indicated by support letters coming from the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and the Burundian national program against non-transmissible disease.