Jeffrey G. Linhardt, Ph.D. - Verily Life Sciences (An Alphabet Company)

Friday, November 10, 2017 @ 3:00 p.m.

MoSE Building, Room G011

Polymers have played a ubiquitous role in vision care and medical diagnostics. After the commercialization of the HEMA based soft contact lens by Bausch & Lomb in 1971, decades of research have led to a wide variety of lens materials. The first part of this lecture will discuss how tailoring of polymers in hydrogels allowed the development of the highest water content contact lenses on the market and in the commercialization of incredibly comfortable silicone hydrogel lenses. The second part of this lecture will cover our current efforts into developing smart contact lenses with the goal of continuous glucose monitoring. Diabetes mellitus affects 387 million people worldwide and that number is expected to increase by over 200 million by 2035. The majority of diabetic patients self monitor their blood glucose (SMBG) using finger sticks to monitor their blood glucose between 4-10 times a day. In recent years, continuous glucose monitors (CGM) have been introduced into the market with the goal of providing more data to patients to allow tighter glycemic control. Several studies have pointed toward better outcomes with CGMs over SMBG. In this lecture, I will describe the development of a contact lens which contains a tiny on-board electrochemical sensor, a custom ASIC, as well as an antenna for communication and transferring data. Particular emphasis will be given to the role of polymers in both the development of contact lenses and in the development of glucose sensors and how their intersection can come together in the development of new body warn sensors.

Biographical Information: Jeffrey Linhardt received his B.S. in Chemistry from St. Bonaventure University (1995) and his Ph.D. in Polymer Science and Engineering from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (2001). From 2001 until 2002, Jeff worked as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Nijmegen and the Technical University of Eindhoven under the Fulbright program. He joined Bausch & Lomb as a senior scientist in December of 2002 and was promoted to a senior principle scientist and group leader within the Polymer Chemistry Department. During his time at B&L, Jeff coinvented and co-developed two contact lens products, BioTrueTM ONEday and Bausch + Lomb ULTRATM contact lenses. In April of 2012, Jeff joined Google[X] as a researcher and has worked on smart contact lenses. Jeff has been a member of the ACS Division of Polymer Chemistry since 1996 and has been involved with the organization or coorganization of several POLY symposia and workshops. More recently (2009-2011) has served as coProgram Chair for the POLY Division with Dr. Kristi Kiick and Dr. Greg Tew. In addition to his activities with POLY, Jeff also serves on review panels for the NIH for SBIR proposals and serves as a committee member for ACS presentations on demand (POD).