The Project
A miniature membrane-less biofuel cell operating under physiological conditions.
Winner
Dr Nicolas Mano
Centre de Recherche Paul Pascal (CRPP)
Avenue Albert Schweitzer
Pessac 33 600
France
http://www.crpp.u-bordeaux.fr
Thirty-two year old French citizen Dr Nicolas Mano is currently a Research Associate at the Department of Chemical Engineering in The University of Texas at Austin, where he also began his Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2004. He received his M.Sc. in Physical Chemistry in 1997 and his PhD in 2001 from the University of Bordeaux I.
His work has been recognized by the 2003 Luigi Galvani Prize of the Bioelectrochemical Society, awarded bi-annually to a researcher under the age of 35, by the 2004 Oronzio De Nora Foundation Prize of the International Society of Electrochemistry on Electrochemical Energy Conversion, and by the Oronzio de Nora Industrial Electrochemistry Fellowship of The Electrochemical Society in 2004.
Dr Mano said: “I’m delighted to have won the award, and I look forward to starting work on this exciting project. The biofuel cell is unique in Europe, and the scientific community will undoubtedly benefit from the success of this project. This research, together with that in the US and Japan, will break new ground.”
Provisional Award
€1,250,000
Project Description
The proposed work will lead to the smallest biofuel cell ever built and to the only in-vivo source of power of a footprint and volume compatible with those of the smallest implanted biosensor-transmitter systems. The glucose-O2 biofuel cell would power a wireless, autonomous, low cost ($3), weekly user-replaced, subcutaneously implanted, miniature, continuous glucose monitor for diabetes management. It would also power other miniature devices located beneath the skin such as a thermocouple/transmitter system for local post-surgical temperature monitor, alerting any infection of the operated site; or a local flow transmitter, indicative of blockage of a duct, such as the bile duct.
