Newton Photonics is quietly working on optical tech for noninvasive blood glucose monitoring

  Newton Photonics  continues to slowly and doggedly develop a noninvasive blood glucose monitor – a much sought-after technology […]

 

Newton Photonics  continues to slowly and doggedly develop a noninvasive blood glucose monitor – a much sought-after technology that no researcher or company has yet to develop successfully. It focuses on optical sensing technology, using light scattering techniques to gauge blood sugar levels without having to break the skin.

The Boston-area company’s site is content-free save contact info for CEO Stephen Cohen, who said Newton Photonics isn’t disclosing at present what it’s working on. He advised to “call back in half a year.”

In the interim, let’s take a look at what we know about the company, since we happen to be rather curious about who will shake out as a successful contender in this highly interesting space. A number of attempts are being made to measure blood glucose without the dreaded finger-stick – Google, for instance, proposed measuring sugar levels in tears with smart contact lenses. Scientists have been searching for a better way since the 1970s; no one has yet delivered.

The company is a 2014 contender in the global MassChallenge startup competition, competing against 128 other companies – which include 34 others in the healthcare space. This is Newton Photonics’ elevator pitch to MassChallenge, in which it’s aiming to raise $200,000:

Newton Photonics is developing a non-invasive blood glucose monitor for diabetes patients. It is based on the company’s proprietary optical sensing technology. Newton Photonics has demonstrated in human trials a working glucose sensing modality. It currently seeks $200,000 to build and clinically test its next generation prototype.

The company filed for a patent in 2005, and received it in 2011:

A method of measuring glucose concentration in tissue includes measuring scattering coefficients of the tissue at each of a plurality of temperatures and at a selected tissue depth using optical coherence tomography, and determining the glucose concentration in interstitial fluid of the tissue as a function of the measured scattering coefficients.

The company won a half million dollar SBIR grant from the National Science Foundation back in 2008 for its work in this space. Cofounder Shmuel Halevi cited in the 2008 Mass High Tech article one other competitor, GlucoLight, which has since folded. Begs the question – what’s Newton Photonics cookin’? While emerging as a finalist is certainly validation from MassChallenge, Newton Photonics’ journey has certainly been a slow, stealthy crawl.

Shares0
Shares0