GRENOBLE, France–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Grapheal, a developer of graphene-based embedded biosensors for on-site diagnostics and distant affected person monitoring, introduced at the moment that it has raised a complete of EUR1.9 million in fairness and non-dilutive sources, together with seed financing from Novalis Biotech’s Acceleration Fund, a number of innovation grants, and Bpifrance convertible notes and loans.
The funds will likely be used to advance the industrialization of Grapheal’s versatile graphene-based biosensor know-how. This sensing know-how combines novel digital nanomaterials, embedded wi-fi electronics, software program information evaluation, and medical cloud IoT applied sciences. The primary two functions of the know-how will likely be a brand new era digital COVID-19 check (TestNPass) for fast screening in high-traffic areas, reminiscent of airports, and a wound care digital assistant (WoundLAB) to enhance the monitoring of hard-to-heal wounds. The funds will even be used to validate the 2 units within the area and full scientific research, respectively.
“Grapheal merges digital bioelectronic sensing applied sciences with connectivity into embedded techniques for on-site diagnostics and distant affected person monitoring, so is an ideal match to the Novalis portfolio” mentioned Wim Van Criekinge, co-founder of Novalis Biotech, who has additionally been appointed to the Grapheal Board of Administrators. “There’s monumental potential for functions of their digital know-how within the medical area, however the fast COVID-19 saliva check could possibly be the game-changing check the world wants to securely return to regular, significantly at airports, live performance halls, and stadiums. Their know-how is delivering a tamper-proof sanitary cross that’s confidential and compliant with stringent information privateness laws, reminiscent of European GDPR. That is positively a important asset for his or her differentiation with competing merchandise.”
TestNPass is Grapheal’s diagnostic check based mostly on saliva sampling that can be utilized to quickly display screen for the COVID-19 an infection. Inside 5 minutes, the digital check detects the presence of the virus with out the requirement of devoted studying tools aside from a smartphone or an ordinary NFC-connected system. When the SARS-CoV-2 virus binds to antibodies contained in TestNPass, a particular electrical sign is detected. This sign might be captured electronically on the system, which accelerates the analysis and permits the result is safe digital switch.
WoundLAB is a versatile and clear graphene-based biosensor patch that constantly information and shops wound biochemical parameters. A smartphone app is then used to speak this information to a telemedicine cloud for information aggregation and additional evaluation. This enables caregivers to watch wound therapeutic of their sufferers remotely, with immediate alerts if any infections or medical issues come up.
“We’re very grateful to everybody that participated in our funding, from the seed capital supplied by Novalis Biotech, every grant approval, and the Grenoble and La French Tech groups at Bpifrance for his or her steady help,” mentioned Dr. Vincent Bouchiat, CEO of Grapheal. “The medical functions of graphene are solely simply starting to be explored, and we’re main these endeavors. With this funding in place, we consider our first product could possibly be available on the market earlier than the top of 2021.”
About Novalis Biotech
Novalis Biotech (Ghent, Belgium) is an early stage enterprise capital investor in applied sciences that revolutionize healthcare. The corporate’s core competence lies in digitalization within the life sciences with a give attention to bioinformatics, genomics and diagnostics. Novalis strongly believes in making use of modern enabling know-how to advance the prevention, analysis, or remedy of a illness. Novalis Biotech Acceleration (Fund II) introduced the primary closing in November 2020.
For extra data, please go to www.noval.is.
About Grapheal
Grapheal develops wearable and disposable sensors based mostly on graphene that allows steady monitoring and analysis. These versatile biosensors empower caregivers with an improved and individualized evaluation device for precision medication. The corporate is among the many first in Europe to give attention to healthcare functions of graphene. Grapheal is a spin-off from the Neel Institute on the French Nationwide Centre for Scientific Analysis (CNRS). CNRS, along with Grenoble College (UGA) licensed key patents to Grapheal, which was incubated and supported by Grenoble’s know-how switch workplace SATT Linksium. Since its creation in 2019, Grapheal obtained quite a few innovation awards, together with the French i-Lab and i-Nov prizes, EDF Pulse prize, EU-funded EIT Well being Headstart award, and was built-in into a number of acceleration entrepreneurship applications worldwide (HEC Problem+, Inventive Destruction Lab, MassChallenge, and NETVA). Grapheal can also be an affiliate member of the Graphene Flagship, a EUR 1 billion, 10-year collaborative program supported by the European Union. Grapheal relies on the previous works in nanoelectronics and materials science carried out by the CNRS staff lead by Dr. Vincent Bouchiat, mixed with the engineering experience in digital connectivity of Behnaz Djoharian. Each are co-founders of the corporate. For extra data, please go to www.grapheal.com.
