Shown are the public patents which I have been named on. Watch this space for further entrants in the near future.
Centrifugally motivated fluidic systems, devices and methods
This patent concerns the single use fluidic consumable of ODx Innovations, a Scottish startup company. This is used for the identification of the correct antibiotics needed to treat a urinary tract infection. The cartridge is made from injection moulded plastic and various films and labels. Using simple and cheap parts it is able to perform several distinct sample processing steps using mainly centripetal forces and air pressure. We were therefore able to keep cost and complexity down. I led the team which developed this cartridge. This covered design, prototyping, production of injection moulded parts, optimisation, setting up low volume production lines, and the beginning of transfer to high volume manufacture. This has given the team at ODx a stable platform on which to develop the other aspects of the system.
Heater (I did not name this one...)
This is one of the original patents filed for LEX Diagnostics, a Cambridge life science startup. It describes the design and optimisation of the heating element which is at the core of how they can achieve PCR in a matter of minutes. This work describes how to achieve very fine thermal uniformity even when using reasonably cheap materials and methods (PCBs for example). This requires clever design of heat management and dispersion elements, and careful choice of materials. I iteratively used FEA and prototyping to produce and fine tune the designs. The device has since been iterated on, but the core of this original design and design philosophy remain.
