Diabetes is the one metabolic disease that can affect nearly every organ system in the body. It is estimated that over 15 million individuals in the United States have diabetes. People with diabetes cannot adequately control their blood sugars without proper treatment, which may include diet and exercise, various oral medications, and/or insulin injections. Fortunately with proper treatment, diabetics can avoid complications such as blindness, kidney failure and increased risk of cardiovascular disease. With current treatments the problem is that patients are required to prick their fingers to obtain a sample of blood to measure their blood glucose.

To address this problem, California-based Oculir is developing a painless alternative in few years; a monitor that reads blood sugar levels by inspecting the tiny blood vessels of the eye, without touching the eyeball. The noninvasive glucose monitor is about the size of a cell phone that patients simply hold up to their eyes, and it works by bouncing a harmless beam of infrared light off the membrane (conjuctiva) that surrounds the white of the eye. Glucose has a strong absorbance of mid-infrared (IR) radiation. The spectrum of light in the probe is invisible and has the right wavelength to interact with glucose molecules in blood that flow through tiny vessels in the thin membrane covering the eye. Here the light reflected back is proportional to the amount of glucose in the blood. Speaking to Technical Insights, John Burd, CEO of Oculir Inc., said, "The more glucose in blood, the less signal at specific wavelengths is reflected back. This gives a noninvasive measure of blood glucose levels."

The blood glucose monitor is unique because most of the other existing systems develop noninvasive glucose testing methods that have attempted to use near-IR radiation on the skin; but the near-IR signal is very weak and the skin is too complex and variable. In addition to measuring glucose in people with diabetes, the device, with modifications, can measure a variety of important medical, military and industrial analytes. The mid-IR region of the spectrum is called the "fingerprint" region because all biological molecules have a distinct and different spectrum in this part of the electromagnetic spectrum.

When asked about the commercialisation of the product, Burd said, "The company has done a very small number of human studies with its research instrumentation and the results are found to be encouraging. The company is now getting ready to run larger human trials and working on the commercial unit." The commercial version of this device is expected to go on sale in the year 2009. "The company is still in early development stages, but it has recently secured generous funding. This is due to the fact that the company has combined the right amount of vision and practical research and technology," he said.

The company is planning to replace the current glucose meter and test strip products in the future. It is open to creative collaborations to speed up the development or lower the cost of the final product. It has also issued three patents and few others that are pending. The patent numbers are US6958039, US6968222 and US6975892.

Details

Dr. John F. Burd, CEO, Oculir Inc.,

11975 El Camino Real, Suite 100,

San Diego, CA 92130.

Phone: 619-992-2873

Fax: 650-475-5644

E-mail: jburd@jburd.com

URL: www.Oculir.com

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