CreatSens Health has received the prize to the most promising startup at the IQS Tech Fest 2019, held on January 24th in Barcelona. The award-winning company is focused on monitoring the progress of chronic kidney disease through state-of-the-art technology tools that allow the measurement of parameters relevant to patients, in a much simpler way than the available options.

The project is the result of the research carried out in the Chemometrics, Qualimetry and Nanosensors Group, led by Francisco Andrade from Universitat Rovira Virgili. Pau Ballester’s research group, collaborated with Andrade to developed an ionophor – a molecule that recognizes the chemical species of interest. The ionophor, in turn, became part of the first sensor capable of directly assessing the levels of creatinine in biological fluids – urine or plasma – in an exact, fast, simple and economical way.

Now, the company’s efforts are focused on the creation of a paper medical device capable of measuring blood creatinine and potassium levels, two key biomarkers in the development of this disease. The vision of CreatSens Health is that the information generated by the measurement device can be tracked from a mobile device such as a smartphone or tablet, the medical office or the patient’s home. The technology developed would allow the decentralized generation and in real time of relevant clinical information, which would help the medical specialist in making decisions and could help to optimize the resources of the healthcare system. CreatSens Health will travel to Boston to continue to drive its technology into the Richi Entrepreneurs’ immersion program.