| Christofer Toumazou | |
|---|---|
| Born | July 5, 1961 |
| Nationality | British |
| Fields | Electronic Engineering |
| Institutions | Imperial College London |
Christofer Toumazou, FRS, FREng, FIEEE, FIEE CEng (born 5 July 1961) is the Director of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Professor of Circuit Design at Imperial College London. He is also CEO of DNA Electronics Ltd and of Toumaz Holdings Ltd.
He holds a BSc degree in Engineering and a PhD from Oxford Brookes University, the latter in collaboration with UMIST (now University of Manchester).
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He moved to Imperial College London in 1986 as a Research Fellow in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering becoming the youngest professor at Imperial in 1995 at the age of 33. He was appointed Head of the Circuits and Systems Group in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and then Head of the Department of Bioengineering in 2001.
In 2003 he raised a total of £22m to create the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at Imperial College London, a multidisciplinary research institute focussing on personalised medicine and bionanotechnology.[1] He became its first Director and Chief Scientist. His own specialism is in the field of personalised healthcare, providing worn or implantable devices for early diagnosis and detection of disease.
He has made outstanding contributions to the fields of low power analogue circuit design and current mode circuits and systems for radio frequency and biomedical applications. Through his research he has made major advances opening up a range of applications in telecommunications and the design of prosthetic implants. He has shown how the natural analogue physics of silicon technology can be used to mimic and replace biological neural functions. Amongst his many achievements in this field of `bio-inspired' analogue design is the development of one of the world’s first implantable cochlea chips, which gave hearing back to the born deaf.
In his current research he is using semiconductor technology to recreate metabolic as well as neural functions of the body. He has developed an bio-inspired silicon pancreas, which mimics the function of the pancreatic alpha and beta cells to regulate glucose levels for people with Type 1 diabetes and, in collaboration with Prof Sir Magdi Yacoub, is developing a miniature sensor to monitor the hearts of people who have undergone heart operations or who have conditions that could lead to heart failure.
In 2011 he was invited to speak at the prestigious TEDMED conference in San Diego. TEDMED is renowned for speakers who are 'cutting edge thinkers and doers who will provide inspiration' and 'innovators' who give a window into the future of medicine. His lecture was entitled 'When Will Wireless Medicine Change Healthcare'.
He has been involved with a number of commercial ventures, including the invention and development of the world's first analogue and digital mobile phone for the largest mobile phone cellular operator in Thailand – this received approval and entered mass production in 2001. Since then, his commercial focus has been applied to a range of innovative electronic devices which harness semiconductor chip technology to provide significant improvements in health and patient care.
He has co-founded four technology-based companies using silicon technology for early detection and management of chronic disease: Toumaz Technology Ltd, Applied Bionics PTE, Future Waves and DNA Electronics Ltd. Products being commercialised include the Toumaz Sensium Ultra-Low Power Wireless Body Monitoring System which gives physicians constant access to vital signs including ECG, body temperature, respiration and physical activity of patients with chronic illnesses using an intelligent chip-enhanced bandaid and the DNA Electronics Genalysis platform for rapid, portable genetic tests outside a lab environment. These companies are good examples of the successful translation of innovative inter-disciplinary research into disruptive market-driven products with practical benefits for patients.[2]
He is currently CEO of two ‘spin out’ companies from Imperial College specialising in medical devices:
Toumaz Ltd has developed the SensiumTM Ultra-Low Power Wireless Body Monitoring System which gives physicians constant access to vital signs. Developments guided by Professor Toumazou in ultra low power silicon chip technology at Imperial College London utilise Advanced Mixed Signal(AMxTM)enabled ultra low power techniques in signal processing and wireless systems to produce chips consuming up to 100 times less power than other state-of-the-art devices. The resulting SensiumTM Chip is an ultra low power SoC sensor transceiver platform for use in a wide range of applications in the 'Human Space'. Use of such technology in patient surveillance systems can potentially capture and record sensor data such as heart rate, respiratory rate and temperature with the potential for capturing other bilogical signals. This data can be wirelessly transmitted via low power radio to receivers in the vicinity for onward transmission to central stations to accelerate clinical response. This technology for remote, real time monitoring in the hospital and home, has been granted US FDA [1] approval and is currently being prepared for implementation in hospitals in the USA.
DNA Electronics Ltd has developed the ‘SNP Dr’, a silicon nanosystem for the prediction of drug response which can predict drug efficacy or toxicity at point-of-care enabling pharmacogenetic testing in personalised medicine, ie tailoring drug prescription and dose to the patient’s genetic makeup, alongside other factors such as patient history and drug-drug interactions. Two more recent innovations are recipients of Wellcome Trust funding for Technology Transfer: a bio-inspired artificial pancreas for the control of Type 1 diabetes, a novel closed-loop insulin delivery system centred around a silicon β cell incorporating a novel glucose biosensor, a physiological control algorithm and insulin infusion pump; this has approval for ethical trials at St Mary’s Hospital London. An implantable blood pressure monitor using SAW technology to provide regular measurements which at present can only be done very intermittently using expensive, and somewhat risky, catheterisations; the sensor is currently in advanced in vivo trials to analyse the biocompatibility of the device and further prototypes are being developed to reduce the size whilst increasing sensitivity.
It is a mark of his innovative and enthusiastic approach to innovating new technologies that Toumazou has had significant success in attracting funding and partnerships to enable him to develop prototypes and complete the technology transfer process. These have been from within the healthcare industry (CareFusion, Roche 454) and industrialists (Patrick Soon Shiong, Barry Lam, KT Lim) who have seen the potential of his entrepreneurial approach to technology and confidence in his ability to deliver success.
Awards for DNA Electronics Ltd: 2010 3 IET Innovation Awards in Electronics, Emerging Technologies and Healthcare; 2010 e-Legacy Award for Medical Advances voted by Electronic Product Design readers and electronic design industry peers; 2009 Elektra09 European Electronics Industry Award for R and D.
Awards for Toumaz Ltd: 2007 IET innovation in Engineering award for Electronics; 2007 Legacy award Finalist Medical Advances Award, Electronic product design; 2006 NMI Start up of the Year; 2006 EMEA OPN Innovation Award; 2004 Oxfordshire Business of the Year Award.
He has published over 320 research papers in the field of RF and low power electronics and holds 23 international patents. He has served as a member of several Government committees including the Foresight Committee on Infectious Diseases and the MOD Defence Strategic Advisory Committee on Critical Technologies. He is Editor-in-Chief for the IET's Electronics letters, Senior Advisor to the Board of Grace Semiconductor in Taiwan and International Advisor for Singaporean Government in medical devices.