Digital health care startup licenses Purdue technologies that monitor blood, brain pressure
November 4, 2015
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind., and MEDWAY, Mass. - An official of a medical device startup that licenses Purdue University monitoring technologies said the company could make the diagnosis and management of chronic disease less expensive.
Douglas Adams, co-founder and CEO of Qura Inc., said the company is developing internally placed devices to automatically monitor blood pressure, brain pressure and glaucoma.
"Currently a patient must visit a hospital, an office or a clinic, somewhere with the equipment and staff to take the readings, in order to provide the information to a doctor," he said. "Qura delivers data wirelessly from the patient to a smartphone and a base station to provide daily monitoring of these conditions."
Purdue researchers in the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, including Qura co-founder Pedro Irazoqui, have developed sensor and monitoring technology that has been licensed to Qura through the Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialization. More than 20 startups based on Purdue intellectual property were launched in the 2014-2015 fiscal year.
Adams said Qura is developing sensors that can be inserted in several locations in the body, including the heart, lung, brain and eye.
"We will start in preclinical research for animals and glaucoma, a disease of the eye in which excess fluid buildup causes high intraocular pressure, leading to damage to the optic nerve that may result in vision loss and ultimately, blindness," he said.
Adams said the company has built a working prototype used in clinical trials that already has recorded data in animal models.
"In the fall, we hope to develop corporate partnerships to raise additional funding," he said. "We then will start building a management team and employee base."
For information on other Purdue intellectual property ready for licensing and commercialization, visit http://www.otc-prf.org. For more information about available leadership positions, investing in a Purdue startup or licensing a Purdue innovation, visit http://www.purduefoundry.com.
About Qura Inc.
Qura seeks to become a leader in the field of physiological monitoring for preclinical research and human health applications. We are developing new micro diagnostic tools that can transform pressure monitoring in biomedicine. Our pressure monitoring system will be used to speed research that leads to cutting edge pharmaceuticals and medical devices for human applications.
About Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialization
The Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialization operates one of the most comprehensive technology transfer programs among leading research universities in the U.S. Services provided by this office support the economic development initiatives of Purdue University and benefit the university's academic activities. The office is managed by the Purdue Research Foundation, which received the 2014 Incubator Network of the Year from the National Business Incubation Association for its work in entrepreneurship. For more information about funding and investment opportunities in startups based on a Purdue innovation, contact the Purdue Foundry at foundry@prf.org. For more information on licensing a Purdue innovation, contact the Office of Technology Commercialization at innovation@prf.org
Purdue Research Foundation contact: Steve Martin, 765-588-3342, sgmartin@prf.org
Source: Douglas Adams, doug@qura.biz
