World Diabetes Day – Expert Interview with Peter Devlin and Danaë Delbeke (INDIGO)

In MuSiC4Diabetes, Indigo develops a continuous multi-metabolite sensor. Can you briefly explain how this device could improve diabetes management, especially in the workplace?

We are developing a sensor that doesn’t just track blood sugar. It continuously measures glucose, ketones, and lactate, giving a much more complete picture of what’s happening inside the body during the day. For people with diabetes, this means they get early warnings when their metabolism is shifting, so they can take action before problems arise. At work, this brings peace of mind and reduces the mental burden of constant checks. People can focus on their tasks knowing that their health is being monitored in the background, safely and reliably.

Multi-metabolite monitoring means that the sensor can not only track glucose levels in the blood but also other important indicators, such as lactate and ketone bodies. Why is it important to complement glucose monitoring with other metabolic values?

Glucose is just one part of the story. Ketones and lactate are also key players in how the body uses energy and responds to insulin. Ketones appear when the body burns fat instead of sugar. If levels get too high, they can trigger a dangerous condition called diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). Our sensor would provide early warnings, so people can act before it becomes an emergency. Lactate builds up during exercise or stress. It can change how the body absorbs sugar and reacts to insulin. Measuring lactate helps people make better insulin decisions in these situations. By tracking glucose, ketones, and lactate together, people get a much clearer picture of their health. This helps them avoid complications, feel safer, and manage diabetes more effectively in everyday life.

Is one of these markers more difficult to detect than the others?

None of the three is inherently “hard” to measure in isolation. The difficulty is doing it continuously with CGM-like accuracy, and doing it simultaneously. Traditional methods need different parts, and chemistries for each marker, which makes a single, long-wear sensor extremely difficult to make. Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) exists, but it measures - as the name already implies – only glucose. Ketones usually require finger-prick tests, which are inconvenient and only give an occasional snapshot. Lactate rarely measured day to day, even though it matters for diabetes management with stress and exercise. Indigo’s approach is different and overcomes the impediments of classical electrochemistry – based approaches and enables for the first time the determination of al 3 metabolites simultaneously and with the right accuracy.

Following the results of a study conducted by MuSiC4Diabetes, adults with diabetes think about their condition for nearly 68 minutes a day. In your opinion, to what extent can your innovative sensor reduce this amount of time?

Diabetes management is like having a second full-time job-it requires constant attention. Our sensor helps take away some of that mental load. Because it’s a tiny implant under the skin, it works for up to two years without needing visible devices, adhesives, or weekly replacements. People don’t have to interrupt their workday for repeated checks. Instead, they can rely on the sensor to continuously track their health and only step in when needed. This reduces daily stress, increases peace of mind, and frees up mental space for work and life.

A sudden incident of hypoglycemia is one of the biggest risks people with diabetes have to face in the workplace. How can a continuous multi-metabolite sensor contribute to mitigating the risk of these incidents?

By giving early alerts about dropping glucose or changes in ketones and lactate levels, our sensor allows people to act before symptoms appear. Monitoring ketones and lactate together adds another layer of safety: by providing insight into metabolic trends that could otherwise lead to dangerous conditions like diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) or hypoglycaemia. This gives users confidence, peace of mind, and a greater sense of control, making the workplace safer and less stressful.

The sensor your team is developing functions as a miniaturised optical spectrometer on a chip. How does this system actually work and which challenges are you facing when developing this innovative technology?

A spectrometer is a tool that uses light to analyse substances. We’re creating a tiny version of this, small enough to be implanted under the skin. It shines light into the fluid around body cells and measures how glucose, ketones, and lactate absorb that light. This lets the device measure all three continuously – without finger-pricks or external patches. The challenge is to make the technology small, stable, and reliable enough to work inside the body for years. But once achieved, it could provide long-lasting, worry-free insights to help people manage diabetes more confidently every day.