Professor FREng FRS PROFILE A TALENT FOR BURSTING BUBBLES Creatures of all sizes, from A typical research career seemed likely for would resonate with microscopic bubbles, greater heating, which could increase the Professor Timothy Leighton FREng FRS which feasibly you might have in the body. risk of damage to the foetus. The working bacteria to whales, have when he was studying undergraduate Nobody knew at the time.” Thus, began a group set out to provide answers on shaped the career of at the . research career that applies physics in real- safety. As Professor Leighton describes the He was interested in astrophysics and world applications. process: “It was basically about coming to Professor Timothy Leighton cosmology, but felt the urge to get into Professor Leighton completed his PhD a resolution, while being wise enough to FREng FRS, but it all started the laboratory. “There was a part of me that and some follow-up work, which gave him take into account the big picture, which I wanted to feel something real between early exposure to something that became thought was engineering. in a babbling brook, where my hands,” he explains. Instead of diving increasingly important in his research. “It “It was based on rigorous maths, careful he began to research the into an undergraduate project that needed helped me to get an all-round picture of experimentation, considering the social, impressive equipment, molecular beam the different environments that people economic and ethical dimensions, and physics of sound in water. epitaxy for example, he chose an area that work in.” His research generated close coming up with a set of guidelines that I am As he explained to Michael was, as he puts it, “an acorn that could turn links with the local hospital, and he came very proud of.” The effect was widespread. into an oak tree”. His attention turned to to understand the relationship between “Since then, two billion children have been Kenward OBE, his research underwater , such as what creates clinicians and medical physicists. Professor scanned under these guidelines. changed direction when an the sound of a babbling brook. It kick-started Leighton realised that the equations at the “Over the years, the power output of a career investigating the physics of sound heart of his work would have little impact these machines was going up and up and invention to clean medical in liquids. on anyone without an understanding of up at a huge rate. I think the scientific devices brought him into Professor Leighton wanted to continue those relationships, the limitations and the community did a good job of putting in the same area when it came to a PhD environment people were in. a line in the sand and saying ‘These are the challenging world of project. Underwater acoustics might not have His first papers appeared amid debates the hazards. This is how you would antimicrobial and antibiotic been mainstream research at the Cavendish about the safety of in foetal calculate them’.” Laboratory (Cambridge’s physics department) monitoring. “The ultrasound images back One outcome of the guidelines was resistance. at the time, but it had the limited amount in the seventies were black and white the development of onscreen displays on of equipment he needed to carry out high- and grainy. It was hard to see anything. all scanners that showed the likelihood speed photography, for example. He received If you look at today’s images, they are of various hazards to the foetus for the backing from a visiting academic that helped brilliant.” The work elicited an invitation settings in use, which allowed operators to to convince a professor so that he could from the World Federation for Ultrasound judge possible risks. “There are a couple of continue studying the physics of bubbles in in Medicine and Biology to join a working numbers shown on the screen. They don’t liquids. “It amused him as a strange offshoot,” party on the guidelines for safe foetus say ‘You can’t exceed this’. They advise the adds Professor Leighton. scanning. “I popped off to Japan, where clinician of the likelihood of a problem, The undergraduate project had focused people from many countries, industry and so the clinician would know that, if what on how gas bubbles trapped by breaking academia, and the healthcare sector got they are doing is lifesaving, disregard those waves or a waterfall make a sound. For his together and thrashed through the various numbers – they are a lower priority than PhD, Leighton reversed the process; rather hazards. I was by far the youngest there, so the medical procedure. But if the procedure than listening to what came out of a fluid, incredibly lucky and grateful to be given an is routine, you should not exceed those he set out to research what happened when unparalleled opportunity to work with the numbers.” he injected sound into it. In particular, he pioneers whose papers I had been reading,” set out to research what happens when he adds. The working party came about sound enters the womb to scan foetuses, an because there was growing interest in the PROBLEM SOLVER issue that raised safety issues as the foetus safety of ultrasound scanning, especially Professor Leighton’s work on foetal scanning is a delicate tissue. “Any mechanical system in the USA. Medics wanted ever more set the pattern for his career; he wanted that makes a sound will vibrate if you shoot detailed images but that meant pushing to have positive effects on people’s lives. sound at it close to its natural frequency,” he up the sound frequency. Scanner makers In 1992, this thinking guided his research Professor Timothy Leighton FREng FRS, Professor of Ultrasonics and Underwater Acoustics at the says. “The megahertz frequencies needed could deliver that, but higher frequencies when he moved to what is now the Faculty University of Southampton to get nice spatial resolution in images are more strongly absorbed and that means of Engineering and the Environment at

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The natural world was also an obvious on their ‘wisdom’,” he says. “It is about subject. Professor Leighton’s research has creating meaningful dialogues and not simply Professor Leighton was inspired to invent taken in whale sounds, dolphins, fish and talking at people. You should be finding out TWIPS (twin inverted pulse ), and from there TWIPR (twin inverted pulse radar), with bubbles in surf. “We were the first people what is in their hearts and minds. You should colleague Paul White after watching dolphins to measure the bubble population in the be a person with a watering can, nurturing hunting with bubble nets. He also saw dolphins blowing and playing with bubble rings (whether surf – how the oceans breathe,” he says. He any seeds you find, helping them to grow, this is for recreation or education is not known) was also the first to propose how humpback giving your full attention to the person in and decided to solve the problem of how they did this while he was in a swimming pool when whales get together to produce ‘walls of front of you.” on holiday in Menorca sound’, bubble nets, to catch prey. Rather Public engagement has been important than being purely a zoologist’s problem, in Professor Leighton’s latest venture, which the University of Southampton to join the Professor Leighton says that this is an has taken him in an unexpected direction. Institute of Sound and Vibration Research. engineering issue; as is the maths that He has set himself no less a task than trying Writing papers was not enough; although dolphins use in their heads when they are to overcome the problem of antimicrobial his tally is now well over 400 publications, processing signals. He concluded what that resistance (AMR). The medical world talks studying the physics of sound underwater maths was, and so devised the world’s only in terms of an ‘antibiotic apocalypse’, the fuelled his engineer’s desire to create (twin inverted pulse sonar and biased notion that sometime soon, perhaps around technologies that would solve problems. pulse summation sonar) that can detect 2050, so many bacteria will have evolved For example, collaboration with a team Professor Leighton and members of his team demonstrate StarStream to Professor Dame DBE FRS, Chief Medical Officer for England. An obvious mines in bubbly seawater. that can resist all known antibiotics that AMR from the National Oceanography Centre in application of this ultrasonic cleaning technology is in cleaning medical and dental instruments. Sold as StarStream, a company now has a licence to produce could be killing more people than cancer. ultrasonic cleaners for just this purpose © Mengyang Zhu Southampton produced GeoChirp 3D, the first truly three-dimensional sub-seabed PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT factory’. In reality, the factory is a cramped It protects the skin and doesn’t promote Leighton sees this as “a really important point profiler (a way of looking at what is under Research into these areas aroused media AGAINST RESISTANCE basement laboratory, filled with instruments resistance; and yet no-one I spoke to could in a world where everyone is so focused on the seabed). The technology was used to attention and fuelled Professor Leighton’s Chemists and the pharmaceuticals industry and plumbing, where Professor Leighton’s see the reason for it.” They all wanted to finding the next way of killing microbes”. image the skeleton of The Invincible, a Royal enthusiasm for public engagement. “I am see new antibiotics as the solution to AMR, small research team works on a series of emulate antibiotics and to kill the bacteria. It was while trying to sell the idea that Navy ship that sank in the Solent in 1758. very committed to public engagement. I get but Professor Leighton has other ideas. inventions that use ultrasound. One of these, “That was one reason why I really brought an “cleaning without killing is a good thing” that That research has yielded equipment for a big kick out of it, whether it is with five- “I could see that there was a disconnect StarStream, looks like a small hairdryer, but engineering approach to AMR. The saviour for Professor Leighton founded NAMRIP (Network conducting sonar surveys of the seabed, in year-olds or people who are double my age.” between the size of the problem and the dispenses a stream of room-temperature humans in terms of AMR isn’t new antibiotics for Anti-Microbial Resistance and Infection marine archaeology and geology, such as His public engagement activity has included way that we were thinking about it,” he water instead of hot air. He demonstrates – they will only give us 10 more years – it is Prevention). Ultrasonic cleaning is certainly a researching landslides in Norwegian fjords. time as a member of the Royal Academy of explains. Bacteria will develop resistance to the device by smearing a spanner with your skin.” Deny bugs entry to the body, by part of NAMRIP, but Professor Leighton is quick In a different domain, Professor Leighton’s Engineering’s Ingenious panel. He believes new antibiotics. Why not take advantage eye liner. Aim the device’s water stream cleaning, looking after the skin and protecting to point out that it takes in much more. His team has developed sensors for the US that the scheme, which awards grants up to of a technology that does not change the at the smear and nothing happens. Flick a breaks in it, and you vastly reduce the risk of engineering approach means that NAMRIP has Department of Energy’s neutron-scattering £30,000 for public engagement activities to gene pool of the bugs? “The mindset of switch and the water becomes cloudy as an infection, he says. looked at the bigger picture, starting with the facility. promote engineering, appears to be working the community has to change before they ultrasonic transducer injects bubbles into Tackling AMR means preventing microbes problem, and has investigated many ways of Back in the medical world, Professor well and has raised the bar enormously. “Ten start seeing that there are other potential the stream. The eyeliner instantly disappears, from evolving resistance. “The microbes tackling AMR. NAMRIP has even taken on the Leighton’s problem-solving helped to years ago you could propose something that solutions.” even from the nooks and crannies in the we wash away with StarStream are alive role of teacher, developing ways to persuade develop needle-free injectors to treat would easily have got funded, that would not Professor Leighton’s move into AMR spanner maker’s embossed lettering. and can pass on their genetic susceptibility children to join the fight against AMR. His next migraines, as well as LithoCheck, an stand a chance today. If you thought ‘I am started when he tried to persuade the Professor Leighton tried to sell the idea of to washing to the population in the wider challenge is to keep NAMRIP alive at the end of ultrasound ‘smart stethoscope’, developed going to impress the kids with 3D printers, community to change that mindset. He using StarStream to fight AMR by cleaning world, where they have lived naturally in their its original funding from the Engineering and with Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation I’m going to produce a movie and put it on wanted the medical world to consider using medical and dental instruments to medics. billions for millions of years. Do not routinely Physical Sciences Research Council. Trust, to predict what is going on when YouTube’, forget it. That is not enough.” The ultrasound to clean wounds, avoiding the They kept coming back with the question: kill microbes if you want to defeat AMR. If you Professor Leighton’s motivation is to doctors use ultrasound, or shock-wave goalposts have moved. “Ten years ago we antibiotic treatments that, through natural does it clean or does it kill? This response do not change the gene pool, genetic natural see that the research into AMR delivers lithotripsy, to treat kidney stones. The idea is were asking academics and engineers just selection, contribute to the development of turned Professor Leighton into an evangelist selection is massively weakened.” You are real benefits. “AMR may kill people under a to tell doctors when treatment has succeeded to get interested in talking to the public. antibiotic resistance in bacteria. He even had for alternatives to antibiotics for tackling AMR. left with a global population of bacteria that massive mountain of published papers that and to prevent over exposure to ultrasound However, today public engagement cannot an invention that could take on the task, a “Cold water cleaning that cleans without remains susceptible to StarStream washing nobody ever reads,” he adds. “I am really and the risk of damaging healthy tissues. be a one-way process, with engineers passing device that came out of what he calls his ‘toy killing seemed to me to be a godsend. the next time they attach to you. Professor pleased and proud of the number of people

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in NAMRIP who have said ‘I see how we can could spread contamination. The University it, persuading the faculty’s 200 academics translate research’ and have started thinking of Southampton team has even used the with cake to get them to write submissions, about doing it and doing it properly.” StarGlider technology to clean away ‘leaves including evidence of the impact of their NAMRIP has added to Professor on the line’, the slime that is created when research. Perhaps surprisingly, he claims Leighton’s thinking on the opportunities train wheels crush autumn leaves on rails, that he enjoyed the REF process. “I did for ultrasonic cleaning in the fight against making them slippery and forcing trains to love a huge amount of what REF did for AMR. He is not ready to say too much slow down to maintain their braking. impact. It raised the bar for people who about all the possibilities, but he likes were saying ‘this research could be of some the idea of taking the technology behind use to somebody, someday’ to having StarStream and turning it into a way of FROM RESEARCH TO to say ‘number of lives saved, number of cleaning wounds, removing bacteria INDUSTRY IMPACT new doctors trained, number of new jobs, so that there is no need to treat some Professor Leighton’s reticence about his number of new dollars’.” patients with antibiotics. As he points out: new inventions is in part because he plans For all his enthusiasm for REF, Professor “each year, 6,000 amputations in diabetics to accelerate the pace at which he gets the Leighton admits that it took up eight alone occur in the UK at a cost of £1 billion, results of his research out into the world. years of his life: four spent running REF because we cannot clean and heal these The work behind the StarStream may have and another four rebuilding the research infected wounds.” won him and Dr Peter Birkin the 2011 Royal group that had all but disappeared Professor Leighton has another related Society Brian Mercer Award for Innovation, during the REF process. Now back up to idea up his sleeve. “We know that the but it is not always easy to win research strength, with five PhD students and three device cleans wounds so I thought, let’s grants for this sort of work. He now hopes postdoctoral researchers, all of them at try and trigger those wounds to heal to take a more business-like approach to least part funded by industry, the team as well.” Early results from his team of unleashing those ‘toys’ on the world. keeps the ‘toy factory’ busy. This year, they engineers and microbiologists, working The Mercer award, worth £250,000, will also have to find room for half a dozen with experts in skin research in the supported the Southampton team in undergraduate research projects working university’s Faculty of Health Sciences, developing new products based on on various inventions. show that the ‘toy factory’s’ latest ultrasonic cleaning. Professor Leighton’s What drives Professor Leighton to go invention, dubbed StarHealer, can increase current challenge is to generate enough beyond adding to his group’s number of healing by around 100%. income to bring his portfolio of ideas to published papers? “I think we have got a This is just one of several ideas that market, and to support the group’s basic massive responsibility. We have been given Professor Leighton is reluctant to talk about research. As it is, industry already provides this brilliant education, fantastic research too much before he has filed patents. most of the money for Professor Leighton’s facilities, and the taxpayer pays a lot for “StarStream has got its patents all tied team, but it comes in small chunks, which the pleasure of us being here. Let’s put up. The others are on their way.” Another makes it hard to manage. He hopes to something back. Let’s save lives with it.” invention sets out to clean larger surfaces change that by bringing a steady stream of with ultrasound. “Often, you want to clean inventions to the market. BIOGRAPHY a larger flat area, it could be a floor, a solar Professor Leighton understands the need Michael Kenward OBE has been a panel or anything else,” says Professor to maximise the impact of the research. freelance writer since 1990 and is a Leighton. “StarGlider does this by hovering He managed the engineering faculty’s member of the Ingenia Editorial Board. input to the latest Research Excellence over a surface without touching it.” No He is Editor-at-Large of Science|Business. need for brushes or other devices that Framework (REF), which meant, as he puts CAREER TIMELINE AND DISTINCTIONS Born, 1963. Studied natural sciences, physics and theoretical physics at the University of Cambridge, 1982–1985. Awarded a PhD for image intensifier studies of sonoluminescence with applications to the safe use of , 1988. Joined the University of Southampton as a lecturer in underwater acoustics, 1992. Appointed Professor of Ultrasonics and Underwater Acoustics, 1999. Awarded the Brian Mercer Award for Innovation, 2011. Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, 2012. Fellow of the Royal Society, 2014. Founding Chair, Network for Anti-Microbial Resistance and Infection Prevention, 2015–present. Founding Chair, Health Effects of Ultrasound in Air, 2015–present. Awarded the Clifford Paterson Medal by the Royal Society, 2017.

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