The team proposes to leverage the widely-available and inexpensive personal glucose meter (PGM) and enable it for the detection of non-glucose targets with a particular focus on the glycated hemoglobin HbA1c in diabetic patients. While numerous sensors have been proposed and reported in the literature, few sensors have been commercialized for on-site and real-time quantitative detection of a wide-range of targets at home and in the field. Perhaps the most successful of such sensors is the PGM as a result of > 30 years of scientific research and engineering effort. However, PGMs can detect only a single target--glucose. Taking advantage of a recent breakthrough in the PI's group in demonstrating the use of functional DNA (DNAzymes and aptamers) conjugated to an enzyme invertase, the team can now enable any PGM to detect a wide range of targets from recreational drugs like cocaine to disease markers like interferon-gamma of tuberculosis to toxic metal ions like uranium. The team proposes to translate this NSF-supported fundamental research into marketable products by focusing on developing a new at-home test for diabetic patients while taking advantage of an existing platform and established distribution channel.
While glycated hemoglobin HbA1c is a clinically proven marker for diabetic patients, testing for it is mostly administered in central labs. The combination of a PGM with functional DNA is a simple and novel application that can revolutionize the way people perform at-home and in-field tests, making medical diagnostics significantly easier and cheaper. If the team is successful with this first application, the same technology can be expanded into dozens of new assays for other targets such as infectious diseases and human cancer and heavy metal ions and pathogens in water and food, all of which leverage the same commonly available PGMs. In making the technology easily accessible to the public through the widely available PGM, this project will make it possible to realize the potential of personal medicine.
As part of the NSF I-Corps program, a team comprised of the principal investigator, a mentor and an entrepreneurial lead was assembled to test the idea of leveraging the widely available and inexpensive glucose meter for the detection of non-glucose targets. The project took advantage of a recent breakthrough in the PI’s group which demonstrated the use of an unmodified, off the shelf glucose meter to detect a wide range of targets from recreational drugs like cocaine to disease markers like interferon-gamma of tuberculosis to toxic metal ions like uranium. Because of the simplicity of the system, it can be used in any point-of-care setting such as at home, in clinics, in retail stores, in the third world, or at emergency sites. The team proposed to translate this NSF-supported fundamental research into marketable products by focusing on developing new at-home tests while taking advantage of an existing platform and an established distribution channel. Through the rigorous training of the I-Corps program, the team learned the importance of customer development (vs. product development). By getting out of the building and talking to potential customers, we identified pitfalls in our initial business plan hypothesis and markets and were able to pivot into a much more viable market. Based on these results, we formed a new startup company called GlucoSentient, Inc. with the PI as the founder, the Mentor as the CEO and the Entrepreneurial Lead as CTO. A consultant, who has extensive experience in developing in vitro diagnostic devices, also joined the company as Chief Medical Officer. The new company has applied and received a Phase I SBIR grant from the National Science Foundation; and with this award the GlucoSentient team is developing a prototype to demonstrate that the technology can be translated from a lab-based demonstration into a more end-user friendly device. In addition, the student team from GlucoSentient has participated in the Cozad New Venture competition at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and they won the Burrill Best Digital Healthcare Application. The event has brought public attention to the newly formed company as well as a $10,000 award. The company also received an I-Start grant from the University of Illinois Research Park called EnterpriseWorks, which provides a highly subsidized level of startup services (legal and accounting) through approved providers in Champaign, IL. These project outcomes have made it possible for the project team to translate NSF-supported research into commercial products and to make the technology easily accessible to the public through widely available glucose meters; and such a technology will play a key role in realizing the potential of personal medicine, which will aid disadvantaged neighborhoods in the US and other parts of the world. Through this process, we have also trained a new generation of students to understand innovation and entrepreneurship.
