College’s Incubator and Institute of Biomedical Engineering on show for Royal visit

HRH Duke of York visits Imperial’s innovative facilities - News

Wednesday 13 June 2007
By Naomi Weston

Innovation and advances in science were the themes for HRH The Duke of York’s visit to Imperial College London this week.

The Duke was invited by Imperial’s Rector, Sir Richard Sykes, in his capacity as the UK’s Special Representative for International Trade and Investment, to see how Imperial is fulfilling its mission to apply research to industry, commerce and healthcare.

Sir Richard introduced the day by giving an overview of innovation at Imperial. He then introduced The Duke to Dr Richard Garraway, Manager of Imperial’s Incubator, for early stage spin-out companies, to commence the tour. The Incubator, houses up to 15 technology-based spin out companies, offering 12 wet labs, office suites and access to advice and mentoring services from Imperial Innovations – a technology commercialisation and investment company based at the College.

As part of this, The Duke also toured around the laboratory of deltaDOT, a life science company that is developing and commercialising innovative technologies for the separation and analysis of biomolecules, which was successfully spun out from College research in 2000.

Dr John Hassard, of Imperial’s Department of Physics and Chief Technology Officer of deltaDOT gave a presentation on the science behind deltaDOT. A demonstration was also given by Dr Tony Baxter, Chief Executive of deltaDOT, illustrating the defence, drug discovery and diagnostic applications of the company.

Following this presentation, The Duke visited the recently refurbished Institute of Biomedical Engineering at the College and was introduced to Professor Chris Toumazou, Chief Scientist and Head of the Institute. The Institute, a postgraduate research facility, draws together scientists, medics and engineers to create revolutionary progress in medical diagnosis and treatment. One example of a project being undertaken is working on sensor networks, which would permit early discharge of patients with continuous patient monitoring as they continue their daily life and well being.

A demonstration was given by Professor Toumazou and Research Associate, Olive Murphy on Acoustic Wave Devices, a well known technology used in mobile phones, which is being applied by researchers to provide an alternative to blood pressure monitors. The tiny, zero power device is to be implanted in the arterial walls to give wireless, continuous blood pressure monitoring.

A second demonstration focused on diabetes monitoring. The Institute of Biomedical Engineering at Imperial is researching on new sensors to monitor glucose levels for type 1 and 2 diabetes. Research concentrates on a novel miniature silicon pancreas that is being used to regulate the amount of insulin secreted into the blood stream depending upon diet and lifestyle. Professor Toumazou, said: "We believe any advances in these fields will have far-reaching effects and make significant contributions to science, aiming to improve the well-being of mankind. It is a great honour to meet HRH The Duke of York and show him the research we are working on."

In addition, the tour visited the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and looked at the Hydrodynamics Laboratory which is the largest of its kind in the UK university sector and is used to study the wave forces on sea-based structures. It has recently undergone a major refurbishment as part of a £6 million project funded under the UK Government Strategic Research Infrastructure Fund (SRIF).