Project staff and support

Shayan Motamedi Fakhr (Intern, University of Southampton)
Graeme Clark (Company Supervisor, Lein Applied Diagnostics)
Mohomed Torbati (Academic Mentor, University of Southampton)
Martyn Hill (Academic Mentor, University of Southampton)
Tristram Armour (Technology Translator, Industrial Mathematics KTN)

This Internship project was carried out at Lein Applied Diagnostics, in conjunction with the University of Southampton. It is part of the KTN's Industrial Mathematics Internships Programme, co-funded by EPSRC. Start date: May 2009; duration: 6 months.

Lein Applied Diagnostics has developed an innovative technology to optically measure a number of parameters of the body via the eye. One of Lein’s main areas of interest is the non-invasive measurement of glucose for people with diabetes. The aim of the project was to support the processing of clinical data from the RBH trial and from in-house tests to improve the correlation model between the eye and blood.

"Working in Lein Applied Diagnostics enabled me to certainly gain a better understanding of how research in industry differs from that in academia. I learnt many valuable lessons during my time at Lein which not only will help me with my PhD project at Southampton, but help me with my life and future career. Being able to work with experienced consultants also formed a great part of my learning curve at Lein as I became more familiar with the physics of optics (by working with Professor Tony Wilson), and experiment design and experimental result interpretation. I also learnt to work as a part of a group and that will indeed help me with my future experiences. In short, my time was well spent at Lein," said the intern Shayan Motamedi Fakhr, University of Southampton.

Project Summary

More than 240 million people across the globe suffer from different types of diabetes. Diabetes is a condition in which the body fails to handle insulin (a hormone produced in the pancreas) and hence blood glucose is not absorbed properly by the cells. This excess glucose in the blood may then lead to certain complications which are harmful to the body. Therefore diabetic patients must be aware of their blood glucose level at any time to become capable of successfully managing it and avoid potential risks. The process of measuring blood glucose level (i.e. taking a blood sample by pricking the finger tip) though simple, is not a pain and risk free procedure. Furthermore, the invasive nature of the blood glucose measurement protocol gives rise to other complications such as nerve damage, elevated infection risk, skin toughness, etc. Hence a non-invasive measurement method could greatly help diabetic patients.

Lein Applied Diagnostics is developing a technology platform to non-invasively measure blood glucose level via eye measurements made by a laser confocal system. A confocal system, in short, is an optical device which uses a highly localised beam of light to scan a specimen and measures the reflected intensity from the specimen back at a detector through a pinhole. It provides a very high axial resolution which can reveal further information about the geometry of the scanned object. A simplified schematic of Lein’s system is shown in the figure below.

The focus of the Internship undertaken by Shayan Motamedi Fakhr was to use his background in signal processing to improve the quality of the data from the clinical trials and improve the correlation model between the eye and blood.

"There are certain competencies that are essential for a PhD candidate, such as time management, communication, team working, etc, which this internship has helped Shayan in obtaining them. This internship has been a perfect demonstration of how research can be applied to improve people’s quality of life. Furthermore, some of the techniques and skills learnt during the internship can be directly applied to his PhD project. " said the academic supervisor Mohamed Torbati, University of Southampton.