For Grove Instruments™ founder Bob Peura, solving the challenge of noninvasive diabetes testing is both a professional and personal mission. Two of his children were diagnosed with diabetes as adolescents. At that time Dr. Peura was a Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and was researching methods for noninvasive glucose testing. By chance, he met Finnish optical physicist Dr. Hannu Harjunmaa during a conference in Switzerland. Dr. Harjunmaa was also working on the same challenge and had found the key to the technology - the Optical Bridge. Both men had the vision to see the possibilities in a partnership.

Today, the founders are close to realizing their goals. With eight patents awarded and one pending, the intellectual property of the company is a deep and key strength. The product continues to achieve accurate and repeatable results, and the prototype device has been compacted from a large laboratory full of equipment to a PDA-size, fully functional device. Grove Instruments™ has received seven major grants from the National Institutes of Health Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) program, consistently receiving stellar reviews by the NIH peer review process, as evidenced by NIH SBIR Grant reviewer statements in 2008:

"(Grove Instruments™) technology is the most exciting NIR non-invasive glucose measurement system under development." - Reviewer 2, NIH SBIR Grant review March and July 2008

"The Optical Bridge technology continues to provide the most promising noninvasive glucose monitoring performance data to date." - Reviewer 1, NIH SBIR Grant review March and July 2008

Clinical testing and product development are currently underway. The company plans to launch two noninvasive products: a diabetes and pre-diabetes screener in 2009 and a portable, home use blood glucometer in 2010.