New funding for accessible tools announced earlier this year.
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) affects close to a billion people globally, often leading to organ failure due in part to the current high cost and complexity of lab tests.
The UM-affiliated startup AssureCKD is creating rapid and affordable lab-on-a-chip technology called MATLOC, that could be administered anywhere in the world at a patient’s point-of-care. This technology represents more than a decade of research by a UM inventor team led by Dr. Claudio Rigatto and Dr. Francis Lin.
“Kidney disease has become a huge problem with, nearly one in ten Canadians affected it’s clear that new tools for early diagnosis are in urgent need,” says Francis Lin, Professor, UM Department of Physics and Astronomy (Faculty of Science) and Department of Immunology (Rady Faculty of Health Sciences).
Although effective tools for the diagnosis of kidney disease already exist, successful treatment depends on timely detection - before the obvious signs of disease become apparent. Routine tests are limited to specialized labs, making them inaccessible in many cases.
Earlier this year AssureCKD announced new major federal funding with Drs Rigatto and Lin to support continued development of easy-to-use test kits.
“As a kidney specialist, the most heartbreaking experience is seeing the emergency of kidney failure and knowing it could have been prevented through early detection,” says Claudio Rigatto, Professor, UM Department of Internal Medicine (Rady Faculty of Health Sciences).
“We’ve done screening in Northern communities that cost thousands and required the transport of hundreds of pounds of equipment. With MATLOC, we will soon be reducing the test to much lower cost that can be done at your doctor’s office during a routine visit.”
MATLOC is now preparing for regulatory clearance in Canada and the United States and is expected to become a clinical and commercial reality in the near future.
“We’ve been lucky to have great support from UM on our day-to-day research operation, helping with recruitment and training of research personnel, and facilitating academic collaboration and industry partnership,” says Lin. “With universally accessible screening tools for early detection of kidney disease, there is hope that we can improve lives for patients and significantly reduce healthcare costs for everyone.”
The push to preventative care is a central tenet for the growing eight-member AssureCKD & UM collaborating R&D team. New groundbreaking research from their Fort Garry Campus lab has led to a recent publication in the high impact journal Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, outlining the progress of the MATLOC technology toward kidney disease prevention for future generations.
For more information on turning research into impact through partnership and collaboration, visit our website.
This article is part of a series celebrating UM-backed startups that are turning breakthrough research into solutions for our communities and economy. Discover the other stories in the series: Innovation Success: From smelly hockey gear to safer surgeries and Innovation Success: The startup fighting viruses you can’t see
Research at the University of Manitoba is partially supported by funding from the Government of Canada Research Support Fund.
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