Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development

The Center for Biomedical Optics was established to commercialize optical technologies for diagnosis, therapeutic treatment, and disease risk assessment in medicine. The center capitalized on advancements in laser materials and laser spectroscopy to enable noninvasive assessment.

The center developed several new optical laser instruments to detect antioxidants in living human tissue. Specifically, the instruments detect the concentration and spatial distribution of carotenoid compounds, which are a family of antioxidants thought to prevent a number of degenerative diseases.

One application allows for the detection of carotenoids in the human retina.  This will be useful to assess a subject’s risk for developing age-related macular degeneration, which is the leading cause of blindness in the elderly. In the past, no reliable noninvasive test procedure existed.  The new laser detection technology makes it possible to noninvasively test the concentration and spatial distribution of antioxidants in the retina through undilated eyes within a fraction of a second.  The test results provide the physician with valuable information regarding the health of the retina and potentially required intervention strategies.

Another application is the use of the technology to detect the level of antioxidants in the human body by taking a reading of skin carotenoid levels. A link exists between the level of antioxidants in the human body and the immune system, which is being researched.

• The success connected to the technology licensed by NuSkin Pharmanex has impacted Utah's economy with jobs and increased revenues, and also generated a significant annual royalty income stream to the University of Utah.

• The level of antioxidants in the eye and skin can now be measured using noninvasive techniques.

• Nutriscan
• Caroderm, Inc.
• Spectratek, LLC

• NuSkin/Pharmanex