On September 21th, 2017, Professor Tony Cass of Imperial College London visited IBP and gave a lecture entitled Minimally Invasive Microneedle Sensor Arrays: From Fabrication to Clinical Evaluation, which was hosted by Prof. ZHANG Xian-En.
Professor Tony Cass is a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Chemistry and Society of Biology. His research interests are in the field of analytical biotechnology both in the use of molecular engineering and design to produce new reagents for biosensors and bioanalysis and in microfabrication for device structures. In 1984, he reported the synthetic mediator-enzyme reaction and the the secondary generation of the enzyme electrode. The principle was used to develop the first electronic blood glucose measuring system, which has been use for home care of diabetes worldwide and generated about 1 billion market. He received Royal Society’s Mullar Award, Chemical Landmark Award, and Stocks Award. 
His current research is focused on using engineered proteins and nucleic acids in micro-and nano-structured materials medical applications.
Personalized or precision medicine is rapidly growing in prominence as constraints on healthcare expenditure make it ever more important to maximize therapeutic effectiveness and minimize adverse events. There are many approaches to building a personalized medicine system. In contrast to the genomic approach Professor Cass’s team is seeking to use a phenotypic strategy through continuous, minimally invasive monitoring of drugs and/or biomarkers to provide real time feedback that can guide drug delivery. The target compartment for this strategy is the subdermal interstitial fluid (ISF) and the monitoring technology is based on microneedle arrays (μNA’s) of electrochemical enzyme sensors. The subdermal interstitial fluid glucose concentration monitored in a non-insertion, minimally invasive way reflects the blood glucose concentration and provides detailed data for precise personalized diabetes treatment. At present, this technology has been used in the skin wearable monitoring equipment, and enters the clinical evaluation phase III.

After lecture, Professor Cass visited the Protein Facility and had a further discussion with Professor Xian-En Zhang’s team.