NIH www.nih.gov awarded $1.5 million in grants to Profusa Inc. http://profusa.com and North Carolina State University’s ASSIST Center https://assist.ncsu.edu to develop an ultrathin flexible patch reader worn on the skin to continuously monitor tissue oxygen in patients undergoing treatment for “Peripheral Artery Disease” (PAD).
The funding for the Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant was administered by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) www.nhlbi.nih.gov within NIH/
PAD affects 202 million people worldwide with 27 million living in Europe and North America. The number of people affected has created an economic burden of more than $74 million in the U.S. alone.
By combining Profusa’s tissue integrated biosensor technology with ASSIST’s thin film electronics, the bandage reader will be a companion device to Profusa’s Lumee™ Oxygen Platform. This makes it possible to continuously measure tissue oxygen levels in ischemic limbs before, during, and after PAD treatments.
“The goal of the collaboration is to develop a bandage-like version of Profusa’s first generation optical reader that is flexible, disposable, and conforms to the foot for continuous monitoring of tissue oxygen levels during revascularization and restenosis in patients with PAD”, explained Natalie Wisniewski, PhD, Profusa’s Chief Technology Officer and Principle Investigator of the program.
Michael Daniele PhD, the project’s site lead for ASSIST said, “The collaboration with Profusa is an extension of their joint work to develop wearable patches for the simultaneous, continuous, noninvasive monitoring of multiple biomarkers and develop a version of the Lumee for home use.”