Prof. Martyn Boutelle

Professor of Biomedical Sensors Engineering

Associate Provost Estates Planning

Department of Bioengineering

Imperial College London, UK 

“Developing Microfluidic Chemical Sensors and Biosensors for Critical Care of Patient Monitoring"

Abstract

Acute illness, injury or surgery are moments when the normal physiological control mechanisms that regulate our bodies tissue chemistry are put under great stress. The concentration of biomarker molecules in the tissue itself, or in biofluids such as blood or sweat can give important information about the state of a patient. Our view is that to do such monitoring effectively ideally requires moment-by-moment measurement of biofluid or tissue concentrations. This information can then empower the clinical care team to improve patient care. Portable, wearable sensing devices are becoming possible through recent advances in microfluidic technologies, microelectronics, sensors and biosensors. We have been developing a range of sensing and biosensing solutions for the invasive and non-invasive monitoring of people in healthcare situations. Microfluidic devices provide a valuable means of clinical sampling, and enabling sample manipulation to give robust quantification of measured signals. Electrochemical sensors and biosensors provide a very sensitive way of measuring the levels of multiple key molecular biomarkers. We then work with clinical care teams to demonstrate the value of the real-time continuous chemical information that microfluidic systems can produce

I will describe the clinical need for monitoring and the key challenges in the development of integrated sensing devices. The talk will be illustrated with data obtained during reconstructive surgery, intensive care monitoring of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) patients and the premature baby monitoring in the neonatal critical care unit. Our ultimate goal is that such systems can be used to monitor patients and guide therapy in a patient-specific, individualized way

Links: Imperial Link Google scholar Link

Biosketch

Martyn Boutelle is Professor of Biomedical Sensors Engineering at the Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London. He is also Associate Provost (Estates Planning) overseeing the development Imperials DeepTech and Innovation Campus at White City in West London. His research group is genuinely multidisciplinary comprising analytical chemists, bioengineers, physicists. electronic engineers and clinicians. He develops novel analytical science methods using microfluidic devices, electrochemical sensors and biosensors, and wireless electronics. These are combined to make portable, sometimes wearable chemical monitoring devices. He then uses these in a program of clinical science research focusing on the acute traumatic brain injury, neonatal care and kidney transplantation. The same measurement techniques are used in patients and in experimental models allowing genuine translational research. 

Professor Boutelle is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. He obtained a BSc Chemistry from Imperial College, followed by a PhD in electrochemistry working for Prof John Albery FRS. He then worked as an EP Abraham Research Fellow in the Physiology Department of University of Oxford working For Dr Marianne Fillenz whose research group was inspired by the pioneering work of Dr Ralf N Adams from KU Department of Chemistry on using electrochemistry to monitor the brain.