Brendan Darby

Measuring the chemical content of cloudy liquids such as wine, beer and milk can be difficult, but researchers at MaramaLabs, are coming up with a solution.

“During my PhD at the University, I was involved with inventing a new type of spectrophometer, CloudSpec,” says Dr Brendan Darby who, along with Dr Matthias Meyer, is a lead researcher and engineer at MaramaLabs.

“Cloudy solutions strongly scatter light and this hinders being able to use light to measure their chemical content and colour. CloudSpec allows the full absorption spectrum to be measured without the need to remove the cloudiness through filtration. It is simple to use and could sit on the bench of any lab, as part of the existing suite of analytical instruments.

“CloudSpec has the potential to improve many processes in the food and beverage industry. It could be used to measure a range of solutions from protein in milk to algae concentration in lake water,” Brendan explains. “MaramaLabs was created to commercialise this invention.”

Both Brendan and Matthias graduated with doctorates and are now employed by Wellington UniVentures. Professor Eric Le Ru, Brendan’s former supervisor, is the senior science adviser for MaramaLabs and Wellington UniVentures is the commercial mentor. The project has received funding from KiwiNet.

“I have always had a passion for optics and spectroscopy, and the field of my PhD was an exciting mix of both topics along with having direct applications in analytical chemistry,” says Brendan “Now, working at the University on a similar project has helped me build on a strong network of connections in the New Zealand science community.

“I am the commercialisation and business manager of MaramaLabs; I look after the business-facing aspects of the project, from dealing with industries to negotiating with investors and product development, but I try to get back to the lab whenever I can.”