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The development of microelectronic sensor arrays for biological applications, pioneered at the University of Glasgow, is central to a unique gene sequencing system developed by Ion Torrent. The Ion Torrent personal genome machine is a bench-top system that, compared to optically mediated technologies, is cheaper and easier to use. Ion Torrent was founded in 2007 and bought by Life Technologies in 2010 for $725M; they, in turn, were bought by Thermo Fisher for $13Bn, citing Ion Torrent as a motivation. Ion Torrent now has 62% of the bench-top sequencing market, estimated to be worth $1.3Bn in 2012.
NIBEC connected health related research over the past 20 years has led to three high value spin- out companies. Their success is based on exploitation of over 35 NIBEC patents in medical sensors and electro-stimulation devices. Together these companies are currently valued at almost £100m, employ over 150 skilled people and have engineered medical innovations that have had global beneficial impact on health costs and patients' lives over these past four years. Our research is closely linked with international partners, commercial and clinical, has impacted local government policy through our leadership of the European Connected Health Alliance and has resulted in the £5m industry-focussed Connected Health Innovation Centre established at NIBEC.
The first commercial electronic nose (aka e-nose) instruments were designed, developed and built by researchers in Warwick's School of Engineering in the 1990s, and commercialized by [text removed for publication]
Warwick's patents in chemical sensing also led in 2008 to the creation of a spin-out company, Cambridge CMOS Sensors Ltd (CCS), which provides low-cost low-power gas-sensing technology and is already established in the gas-sensing market.
The smart sensors and instrumentation developed as a result of the pioneering research in artificial olfaction and chemical sensing have had economic impacts across a wide range of sectors, in particular in food quality, healthcare and consumer electronics. The two companies employ around 100 people and the thousands of e-nose instruments sold help quality assurance of foods, beverages and are now being deployed in hospitals for bacterial detection.
A ground-breaking range of innovative sensor products — the EPIC Sensors — has been developed and marketed world-wide by Plessey Semiconductors Ltd. The EPIC Sensors allow contact-free measurements of electric phenomena, initially aimed at the health, sports and automotive markets. They operate on the non-invasive, low-cost, generic, award-winning Electric Potential Sensor (EPS) technology invented and developed at Sussex as a spin-off from fundamental low-temperature physics research. Income to the University from licence fees, costs and royalties started during 2012. Sustained industry engagement with key strategic partners in the medical, forensic, security, materials testing and geophysics sectors, including government organisations, industry and academia, is leading to a wider awareness and adoption of this novel technology.
Low-cost wireless solutions beyond the technologies available previously and developed at Loughborough University since 2005 are used by IDC, and Sure, who integrate these technologies in several products and services so generating impacts in terms of:
The technologies have been deployed in a logistics distribution centre (ToysRUs), an automotive manufacturing process (Toyota), and a safety and security system (Sure).
Professor Chris Toumazou FRS and his team at Imperial College have developed biomedical technologies based on ultra-low-power CMOS and ISFET electronics to provide the medical community with the means to rapidly diagnose, monitor, and treat diseases with confidence and at low cost. Since 2008, the impact of this research has been to:
I1) spinout a start-up company DNA Electronics (DNAe) to deliver point-of-care products to quickly recognize genetic diseases and identify potential poor drug interactions;
I2) enable Life Technologies (formerly Ion Torrent) to develop the Personal Genome Machine (PGM) that have generated $100m in sales (in the 18 months since its launch) using DNAe's core semiconductor sequencing IP;
I3) save lives by using the PGM in clinical and public health applications;
I4) spinout a second start-up company (Toumaz) that has released SensiumVitals®, a FDA-approved and CE-marked ultra-low power system for wireless monitoring of patient vital signs;
I5) provide early warning of adverse physiological events in clinical settings using the SensiumVitals® platform resulting in improved quality of patient care and reduced demand on intensive care provision in hospitals internationally.
UCL spinout company, Senceive Ltd, has established itself as an innovative provider of wireless enabled remote condition monitoring solutions. The company provides a robust, scalable, safe and highly cost-effective infrastructure monitoring capability for railway and construction industry applications, with customers including Amey, Costain, Network Rail and Tubelines. Recent deployments on projects such as Crossrail have been recognised by industry bodies as delivering significant product innovation and cost savings in excess of £1 million compared to use of a wired monitoring solution.
Research led by Dr Nanayakkara has directly enabled the development of a new sensing device that offers 97% accuracy in the discovery of red weevil palm infestations, allowing early treatment and significant financial savings for coconut producers. An estimated 10% of the global palm production is damaged due to a pest called the red palm weevil. In Sri Lanka alone, contributing approximately 2% of the World's coconut production, the annual cost of the damage is estimated to be around £15 million, causing both economic and social problems. Dr Nanayakkara, in collaboration with the Sri Lanka agricultural council, has developed a portable electronic device that has been demonstrated to be 97% accurate in field trials conducted by the Coconut Research Institute (CRI) of Sri Lanka. The CRI has recommended this device to more than 5000 coconut state owners in Sri Lanka as the best available red palm weevil detector.
Two leading manufacturers of clothing for outdoor activities ([text removed for publication]) have produced a new range of functional clothing based on research at Ulster on wearable technologies for the active ageing. The new age-appropriate outdoor garments incorporate wearable technologies that enable self-monitoring of physiological parameters (heart rate, respiration rate) and activity levels (step-counts, distance walked) with optimal placement of sensors to improve signal-to-noise ratio. Additionally, [text removed for publication], a company producing [text removed for publication], have used feedback from Ulster's research evaluations to design a new range of [text removed for publication] that are incorporated into the garments, achieving increased levels of usability by elderly people.
Sensors and on-line monitoring systems have clear benefits for various sectors including water utilities, food, health, safety and defense. Current approaches include optical, acoustic, mechanical, electrical and bio sensors, however they often suffer from low reliability, sensitivity and accuracy, combined with infrequent measurements and high cost, all of which hinders their industrial application. Hence, to meet the current industrial demand the scientists at the Built Environment and Sustainable Technologies (BEST) Research Institute have developed a new real-time non-invasive sensor platform based on the use of electromagnetic waves. These are being used extensively by United Utilities PLC, Mechan Controls PLC, the UK Defence Science & Technology Laboratory and Animalia in Norway.