ROCKY MOUNTAIN SECTION OPTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA
                              &
           IEEE LASERS AND ELECTROOPTICS SOCIETY


                      Jan. Meeting

   Engineers in Medicine and Biology joint presentation

Date:  Thursday, 21 Jan. 1999
Time:  7:00 PM refreshments, 7:30 PM talk
Place: National Institute of Standards and Technology
       325 Broadway, Boulder, CO
       Room 1107


Noninvasive Optical Detection of Glucose

       Dr. Kathleen Meehan
       Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering
       University of Denver


Abstract:

Several approaches are being investigated for noninvasive or minimally invasive 
detection of glucose.  The aim of this research is to measure blood glucose 
levels with the accuracy of the currently approved method without the pain of 
pricking your finger.   Optical noninvasive techniques will be described.  
Issues that impact the accuracy of the predicted blood sugar will be discussed, 
with an emphasis on surface contamination and skin hydration.


Biography:

Dr. Meehan received her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at 
Urbana/Champaign under the direction of Professor Nick Holonyak, Jr. She worked 
at Lytel, Inc. (now Amp/Optoelectronics) as a member of technical staff 
developing telecommunication LED, lasers and photodetectors.  She left Lytel, 
Inc. to join Polaroid Corporation. As Senior Research Group Leader, she was 
responsible for the design of the new lasers to be used in Polaroid's laser 
printer projects. She left Polaroid in 1995 to join Biocontrol Technology, Inc., 
a small company in Western Pennsylvania that was developing a noninvasive 
optical glucose sensor.  She recently left Biocontrol Technology to join the 
Department of Engineering at the University of Denver.  Her current research 
projects range from the fabrication of a SnGe photoconductive array for mid-
infrared applications to further applications of optical spectroscopy for 
biomedical and environmental applications.