Today, diabetics must carry out a “finger prick” test as part of their blood glucose level management. It is recommended to do this test at least 4 times a day. Many diabetics fail to do so even once for a number of reasons: pain avoidance, disliking the sight of blood, cost of the test strips, the test protocol and the risk of infection. This failure to manage blood glucose levels has serious long term implications. Heart disease and blood vessel disease are the biggest complications that people with uncontrolled diabetes face. Blood vessel damage or nerve damage also lead to chronic foot and leg ulcers called diabetic foot that can result in amputations. More than 60% of leg and foot amputations not related to an injury are due to diabetes which is also the cause of new blindness and kidney disease. Our solution is a non-invasive glucose monitor that will allow people with diabetes to monitor their blood glucose levels in a quick and painless manner, for a low price. When using normal Raman Spectroscopy very little light undergoes Raman scattering, therefore high integration times are required to achieve a usable signal-to-noise ratio. Expensive optics are necessary for collecting, isolating and dispersing the light. Our technique and system packaging promises to overcome all of these obstacles. We use Stimulated Raman Spectroscopy, created when two light beams interact with each other in the presence of glucose. The energy is transferred from one beam of light to the other, and this transfer is proportional to the number of glucose molecules present. By measuring this energy transfer using a simple and inexpensive power meter, the glucose concentration is measured without the need for dispersing the light and analyzing the Raman Spectrum. A patent has been applied for. We have completed the Technology Readiness Level 2 (technology concept formulated) and plan to complete Technology Readiness Level 3 (Experimental Proof of concept) in this project.

Bladder cancer is among the most expensive diseases in oncology in terms of treatment costs; each procedure requires days of hospitalisation and recurrence rates are high. Current unmet clinical needs can be addressed by optical methods due to the combination of non-invasive and real-time capture of unprecedented biomedical information. The MIB objective is to provide robust, easy-to-use, cost-effective optical methods with superior sensitivity and specificity to enable a step-change in point-of-care diagnostics of bladder cancer. The concept relies on combining optical methods (optical coherence tomography, multi-spectral opto-acoustic tomography, shifted excitation Raman difference spectroscopy, and multiphoton microscopy) providing structural, biochemical and functional information. The hypothesis is that such combination enables in situ diagnosis of bladder cancer with superior sensitivity and specificity due to unprecedented combined anatomic, biochemical and molecular tissue information. The step-change is that this hybrid concept is provided endoscopically for in vivo clinical use. The project relies on development of new light sources, high-speed imaging systems, unique imaging fibre bundles, and endoscopes, combined and applied clinically. The consortium comprises world-leading academic organisations in a strong partnership with innovative SMEs and clinical end-users. Through commercialization of this novel imaging platform, MIB is expected to reinforce leading market positions in medical devices and healthcare for the SMEs in areas where European industry is already strong. The impact is that improved diagnostic procedures facilitate earlier onset of effective treatment, thus recurrence and follow-up procedures would be reduced by 10%, i.e., reducing costs. Using MIB technology, healthcare cost savings in the order of 360M€ are expected for the whole EU. Equally important, prognosis and patient quality of life would improve drastically.