Last summer, a young, unheralded scientist named Zhen Gu unveiled a “smart” insulin patch, yet another in a string of biomedical creations that could be traced back to his early childhood. This one stood out: Headlines hailed it as the beginning of the end of painful injections for diabetes.
The biomedical engineer’s inbox was flooded with emails from patients eager to try out the thumbnail-sized device, covered with more than 100 tiny needles like a miniature bed of nails. “Thanks so much for your interest and encouragement!” Gu would patiently respond to each, trying to let them down easy. “We are currently planning to do large animal tests … if successful, we will move to clinical trials. We will update you!”
