Using the BGM as a general diagnostic platform
Technology
- The Blood Glucose Meter (BGM) is a widely available and proven medical device that is used by millions of diabetics around the globe. Today’s glucose meter is the culmination of over 30 years of engineering and development efforts to make it do one thing extraordinarily well: measure blood glucose levels anytime, anywhere. At GlucoSentient, we have developed a powerful technology that is transforming the PGM into a device that is capable of quantitatively and conveniently detecting other non-glucose targets. This is made possible by our patent pending technology that translates the amount of non-glucose target to glucose. The amount of glucose is then measured by the PGM. The technology is robust and widely applicable, including heavy metal ions (environmental monitoring), small molecules (drug monitoring, drugs- of-abuse tests), protein markers (immunoassay diagnostics) and nucleic acid (molecular diagnostics) quantification.
Application
- Therapeutic Drug Monitoring – A common misconception regarding modern medicine is that a “one size fits all” dose of a drug can safely and effectively treat all patients with a particular disease. However, for many drugs, over- or under-dosing can either lead to deadly side effects or result in an ineffective treatment. Furthermore, ‘proper dosage’ can vary dramatically from individual to individual, necessitating frequent monitoring. Unfortunately for many patients, regular monitoring and adjustment of their drug regimen is prohibitively expensive and time consuming. GlucoSentient’s technology empowers the patient by providing an easy to use, affordable, and highly familiar monitoring test that can be done at home using only a glucose meter.
- Disease Monitoring – For millions of diabetics and patients with previous heart complications, the risk of a subsequent myocardial infarction is significantly increased. For these patients, it has been shown that certain protein biomarkers in the blood such as C-reactive protein (CRP) and brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) are valuable markers to predict the likelihood of a cardiac event. GlucoSentient’s technology allows these high risk patients to monitor their biomarker levels at home with a simple and familiar test to complement their regular doctor visits or to prompt an earlier visit due to rising levels of the predictive biomarkers. Such proactive monitoring will encourage more heart healthy activities as well as allow patients and doctors to identify complications early, bettering lives and reducing costs.
News
- In 2018, GlucoSentient has awarded a SBIR grant to develop BGM based tests for monitoring lung transplant patients.
- In 2017, GlucoSentient has awarded two SBIR grants to develop home solutions to monitor Phe for the PKU patients, sodium and lithium ions for BD patients.
- In 2016, GlucoSentient has completed the development of a prototype system.
- Upto 2015, GlucoSentient has been awarded over 2 million dollar in SBIR grants.
Team
Prof. Yi Lu
Prof. Yi Lu is the Founder and scientific advisor of GlucoSentient. He is the Jay and Ann Schenck Professor in the Departments of Chemistry, Biochemistry, Materials Science and Engineering and Bioengineering. He is also a member of the Center for Biophysics and Computational Biology and Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. His research interests lie at the interface between chemistry and biology. Dr. Lu has received numerous research and teaching awards, including the Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2007), Early Career Award, Society of Biological Inorganic Chemistry (2007), Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor Award (2002), Camile Dreyfus Teacher- Scholar Award (1999), Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship (1998), Research Corporation Cottrell Scholars Award (1997), and the Beckman Young Investigators Award (1996). Dr. Lu is an accomplished entrepreneur, holding more than 20 US and international patents, and founder of ANDalyze.
Dr. Tian Lan
Dr. Tian Lan obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign with Professor Lu’s and recently joined GlucoSentient. His current role is leading the technical team toward GlucoSentient assay development. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a B.S in Biochemistry with department honor. Later, he joined Professor Yi Lu’s research group at UIUC as a graduate student. He has expertise in the isolation, characterization and application of functional DNAs and worked extensively on isolation of functional DNAs for several targets, such as aptamer on melamine, perchlorate and Cd2+ selective DNAzyme. Besides the expertise on functional DNAs, he also has a broad knowledge in nanomaterials for sensing applications. One of the sensors he discovered is currently utilized by ANDalyze Inc. for environmental monitoring of heavy metal ions. In addition, as a senior graduate student in the laboratory, he led a group of graduate students and post-doctoral researchers to solve the three-dimensional structure of DNAzym
Steve Mayer, M.D.
Dr. Steve Mayer joins GlucoSentient with over twenty-five years of diverse experience in the diagnostics, device and pharmaceutical industry with a Medical Doctor (MD) and a BS degree with honors in Chemical Engineering, both from University of Wisconsin-Madison. Previously, he was a senior scientist and program manager at Abbot Diagnostic Division (ADD) with expertise in self-performing immunoassays for the consumer. Additionally, Dr. Mayer also designed, invented and fabricated Qwikwash: a commercially successful enzyme immunoassay bead washing system and diagnostic disposables for Abbott Laboratories and provided design services for high volume automated hospital and blood bank immunoassay analyzers.