Page 15 - SensNews Apr13

S100: So why the interest in sensors?
MB: I post-doc’d with Garry Rechnitz at SUNY at Buffalo, and he
introduced me to the exciting world of ISEs. Two jobs later, I was
heading a group at Technicon where we developed the first clinical
sensors for Na+ and K +. It doesn’t sound very impressive today, but
we changed the world from using flame photometers for blood elec-
trolytes.
S100: What were the challenges in achieving that?
MB:The challenges were many and various. When I hear people talk
about system integration, I often wonder if they really know what it
means. We developed those sensor systems to be integrated into an
automated clinical analyser called SMAC (Sequential Multiple Anlayzer
with Computer). It was one of the first microprocessor controlled
lab systems in a time when programming was assembly language, one
line at a time.
We needed 8 seconds of “flat” in a 25 second sample, at a time when
it was widely believed that ISEs took several minutes to reach equilib-
rium. There was the problem of how long a PVC/valinomycin mem-
brane would last in a continuous flow system which might operate
24/7. Bugs growing in the reagent solutions
used to dilute the blood plasma sample didn’t
help. I could go on about this for a very long
time. We had an exceptional team of scientists
and engineers, and one by one the problems
were solved. I remember spending a very long
week in mid winter in MadisonWisconsin
where we ran 3000 sample to collect data for
the FDA. The FDA did their thing, and SMAC
was launched in 1973 Technicon SMAC 1973