Profile: Professor Tony Cass

Tony Cass pioneered the first electronic glucose finger stick around 30 years ago and continues to push the boundaries of personalised care.

Professor Cass (Chemistry) celebrates his 30th year at the College in 2013, having worked across numerous departments and centres – some now extinct, and others that have evolved into groups such as the Institute for Biomedical Engineering, for which Tony serves as Deputy Director.

What changes have you seen at the College?

It’s interesting, because I came to Imperial to help establish a new Centre for Biotechnology, when some of the hot topics included microbial production of biofuels from agricultural waste. Projects running in the early 1980s trying to do that have now come back into vogue (see Wind in the willows boosts biofuel production). My own work is mostly in diagnostics and sensing, which is also enjoying a revival.

What are the current priorities for personalised treatment?

We’d like to be able to see at an early stage in treatment how a patient is responding to a drug. Do they need an increased or decreased dose, or should they switch to a different drug altogether? Currently such personalisation, if done at all, requires blood samples to be sent to hospital laboratories, which takes time. It would be much better if the patient could take their prescription drugs along with a simple home use sensor, then results could potentially be sent to their mobile phone and onto their GP, who could monitor treatment.

You were part of the team that pioneered the first electronic glucose monitoring finger stick around 30 years ago. Is that an area that you are still active in?

It is, yes. There’s been a steady improvement in the technology – blood samples have got smaller and response times are faster. But it still suffers from the limitation that glucose changes so quickly you can miss the highs and lows, even if you sample five times a day. What you’d like to be able to do is measure glucose continuously. We’re working on a small patch that would do just that. It has tiny sensors that sit just under the skin. It’s bloodless and painless.