Imperial researcher wins European Inventor Award

The only UK inventor to receive an award, Toumazou was recognised for a system called the SNP Doctor. The portable, low power device relies on small silicon microchips to identify genetic mutations that determine a person's predisposition to certain hereditary diseases. Unlike conventional DNA sequencing machines, it is able to provide patients with results on the spot without the use of a lab, in minutes instead of weeks. It is also significantly cheaper. "Thanks to Toumazou's technological innovation, the early detection of an increased likelihood of hereditary conditions such as Alzheimer's is a veritable milestone on the way to a medical science that focuses on preventing diseases," the European Patents Office (EPO) said in a statement. Recognising this achievement, the EPO on Tuesday presented Toumazou with the European Inventor Award in the Research category. "One of the most significant challenges in healthcare research is to meet the needs of individual patients," said EPO president Benoît Battistelli at the awards ceremony in Berlin. "Thanks to the efforts of Christofer Toumazou, applications in this field have become much faster, more efficient and more economical" After leaving school at the age of 16 with no qualifications, Toumazou began his career at Imperial developing microchips for mobile phones. He then decided to delve into the world of genetic disorders after his son Marcus was diagnosed with a rare, hereditary form of kidney disease. "This made me realise that medical technology is not up to scratch when it comes to treating patients with chronic illnesses," Toumazou said. "It immediately became clear to me that if we succeeded in applying only a fraction of microchip technology in this field, it could result in developing significant innovations." Toumazou soon discovered that microchips could efficiently be used in human bodies. He then went on to prove that microchips can actually be activated by human DNA. "My inspiration when researching in the field of human DNA is nature," he continued. "Speaking and hearing both involve natural signals. The same applies to electronic devices: The most natural signals here are analogue and not digital ones." The SNP Doctor is now being used in research institutions and hospitals around the world. "I think that in 20 years' time medicine will be very different," Toumazou noted. "This technology will drastically reduce the time to get a result. Doctors will then be looking at your medical future instead of your history with technology like this"