Versantis and ZHAW developing portable measuring device for liver function tests

The Zurich-based firm Versantis has been awarded an Innosuisse grant totaling 475,000 Swiss francs. According to a press release, this will be put towards co-financing the development of what is known as a portable point-of-care (POC) device to monitor ammonia levels in the blood.

Elevated ammonia levels are often a sign of chronic and acute liver disease. This can even lead to hepatic encephalopathy (HE), a serious and potentially fatal complication. Up to this point, ammonia monitoring has been a time-consuming process requiring the input of medical professionals in addition to laboratory equipment and extensive hospital logistics

According to the press release, Versantis is set to enlist the services of the School of Engineering at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) for the development of a prototype. This will be based on the TS-01 method for the quantification of ammonia that was developed by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH) and was recently published in a scientific journal.

According to Dr. Vincent Forster, CSO and co-founder of Versantis, owing to the fact that potential complications affect 30 to 45 percent of cirrhotic patients, there is a huge unmet medical need for an accurate and user-friendly device of this kind. “We believe using a novel portable point-of-care device will allow daily monitoring of ammonia, thereby significantly reducing hospitalizations and fatal outcomes for patients”, Dr. Forster explains in the press release.

As Versantis CEO Mark Fitzpatrick underlines, the number of patients suffering from liver cirrhosis continues to rapidly grow and “a large proportion of them would benefit from better monitoring”. This unique technology offers the company “a significant market opportunity”, he concludes.