April 12, 2023
EnLiSense CCM Receives Funding from Crohn's & Colitis Foundation To Develop Its Real-Time Inflammation Monitor Using Sweat Sensors For Tracking And Monitoring IBD Disease Activity In Patients
DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--EnLiSense CCM, a medical health wearables technology company that non-invasively measures inflammatory biomarkers with sweat, announced today that it has received an investment from the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation’s IBD Ventures program to develop EnLiSense CCM’s IBD AWARE product. IBD AWARE is an inflammation tracker targeting key biomarkers associated with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
“We are proud to partner with the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation and our clinicians on this important endeavor”
The IBD AWARE device and sensor rests on a patient’s skin sampling nano-liters of passive sweat and will continuously measure and report biomarkers such as C-Reactive Protein (CRP), Calprotectin, Interleukin-6 (IL6), Tumor Necrosis Factor alpha (TNF-α), Interleukin-1 beta (IL1-β), Cortisol and other biomarkers. Additional details about the IBD AWARE platform and how it works can be found at https://www.ibdwearable.com.
Funding from the IBD Ventures program will support further clinical studies for the product development and validation with clinicians, David T. Rubin, M.D., of the University of Chicago Medicine and Bruce Sands, M.D. and Robert Hirten, M.D. of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. These studies will further the development of a critical diagnostic tool that can help enable research and development of personalized treatment and therapies to improve the quality of life for patients with IBD.
“Minimally invasive and real time monitoring of inflammation is a critical unmet need for patients with IBD,” said Andres Hurtado-Lorenzo Ph.D., Vice President, Translational Research & IBD Ventures at the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation. “We are very enthusiastic about supporting EnLiSense clinical studies to further validate their groundbreaking sweat biosensor, following our initial academic investment in this technology via the Foundation’s Novel Technologies Initiative. We are thrilled to see how the synergy of our investments is bridging the gap between academic and industry research to advance novel and highly needed bioengineering-based solutions for IBD patients.”
“We are proud to partner with the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation and our clinicians on this important endeavor,” said Sriram Muthukumar Ph.D., CEO of EnLiSense CCM.
“IBD AWARE will provide patients and their clinicians with the real-time, actionable data they need to further quality of life outcomes. IBD AWARE biomarkers would be able to identify those individuals at risk for the disease and be disease specific; would be able to detect disease activity and monitor the effect of treatment; and would have a prognostic value towards relapse or recurrence,” Muthukumar concluded.
Since 2017, IBD Ventures has invested in 20 companies and academic institutions to advance new projects. The Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation launched IBD Ventures to accelerate the discovery and development of research-based products with the potential to address unmet needs of IBD patients. As a venture philanthropy program, IBD Ventures aims to advance products through the developmental pathway towards patient care by investing in novel early-stage products. The program funds, advises, and provides resources to for-profit companies, academic institutions, and other organizations seeking to develop products that can improve remission rates and quality of life for patients with IBD. For more information, visit IBD Ventures online.