Norfolk technology company invited to showcase innovation to Home Office
Intelligent Fingerprinting has been invited to present its revolutionary fingerprint-based drug screening technology to the Home Office at a forensic technology event in London on 8 October.
Based at the Norwich Research Park, Intelligent Fingerprinting is one of only six cutting-edge UK organisations invited to take part in the event, which showcases new forensic science, intelligence and counter terrorism technologies to the broader forensic science community including the Home Office and Police.
Dr Paul Yates from Intelligent Fingerprinting said: “This event gives us an excellent opportunity to explain our new drug screening technology to a specialist audience. Unlike conventional drug tests, which require blood or urine samples, our portable testing device is totally non-invasive and works by analysing the sweat in a person’s fingerprint to screen for multiple drugs of abuse in less than ten minutes. This new process could be a real game-changer in drug abuse screening, cutting time and cost significantly.”
The day will consist of introductory talks from the Home Office Centre for Applied Science and Technology and the Police Service on how innovators can work with public sector bodies, followed by demonstrations from the invited organisations.
The event, backed by the UK’s innovation agency, the Technology Strategy Board, aims to support the Home Office review of Research & Development in forensic science. It is being held at the Ambassadors Hotel, Bloomsbury, London.
About Intelligent Fingerprinting
Intelligent Fingerprinting’s unique fingerprint-based portable Drug Screening System is set to revolutionise the way drug screening is carried out across a range of sectors. The distinctive Intelligent Fingerprinting technology, which works by analysing the sweat from a fingerprint sample, enables non-invasive, cost-effective screening for multiple drug groups in less than 10 minutes.
Intelligent Fingerprinting has attracted worldwide interest in its technology from a wide range of drug-screening markets including the criminal justice arena, drug rehabilitation centres, prisons and occupational health services. The technique has potential for many other uses including healthcare diagnostics and homeland security applications.
The company’s ground-breaking technology detects drug use by analysing chemicals, known as metabolites, contained in the minute traces of sweat found in a fingerprint. (Metabolites are chemicals produced by the body as a result of normal metabolic processes.) The Intelligent Fingerprinting Drug Screening System looks for the presence of specific drugs or drug metabolites in the test subject’s fingerprint sweat sample and, if detected, identifies which drugs have been consumed.
Since 2012 Intelligent Fingerprinting has raised £11.23m in funding from a consortium of private UK and US-based investors, as well as government funding for pilot studies within the UK’s National Health Service and coroners’ services.
Founded in 2007, Intelligent Fingerprinting is a spin-out company from the University of East Anglia (UEA). The company is based in Cambridge, England and currently employs 26 people.
