{"id":457495,"date":"2023-09-07T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-07T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/innovationorigins.com\/?p=457495"},"modified":"2023-09-07T10:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-09-07T08:00:00","slug":"assessing-drug-concentration-in-blood-paves-the-way-to-personalized-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/assessing-drug-concentration-in-blood-paves-the-way-to-personalized-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Assessing drug concentration in blood paves the way to personalized care"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Axithra, a spin-off of imec and Ghent University, Belgium,  announced a ten million euro seed round to finance its therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) platform. The tool aims at quickly and accurately measuring drug concentrations in a patient&#8217;s blood, wrote <a href=\"http:\/\/be\">imec<\/a> in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imec-int.com\/en\/press\/axithra-spin-imec-and-ghent-university-raises-10m-euro?utm_campaign=imec%20Press%20release%2005-09-2023&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=eloqua\">press release<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"io-block io-block__summary\"><ul><li>Axithra, a spin-off of Ghent University raised ten million euros. <\/li><li>It is working on a platform to measure drug concentration in patients&#8217; blood. <\/li><li>Such an accurate assessment paves the way for faster and more personalized care.<\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The correct dosage is crucial for many drugs to ensure the optimal effect. It is a constant focus in hospital units with seriously ill or debilitated patients, who often exhibit physiological changes over time, such as those in the intensive care or oncology unit. When administering insufficient doses, a drug loses effectiveness, while excessive doses may cause toxic, potentially fatal side effects.\u00a0Axithra\u00a0will develop a TDM platform based on optical technology. It aims at fast and accurate measurement of drug concentrations in blood, enabling timely adjustments of dosages when needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ensuring optimal treatment<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>As a first application, the spin-off will deploy its technology to measure the concentration of beta-lactam antibiotics in a patient\u2019s blood. This class of antibiotics is by far the most commonly used to treat or prevent bacterial infections and is administered to millions of intensive care patients each year.\u00a0Axithra\u2019s platform will ensure that treatments can be optimally tailored to the individual patient. Over time, other drug classes will be incorporated in the pipeline.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Prof. Jan De Waele, an intensivist at the Ghent University Hospital and President-elect of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine, commented: \u201cGiven the large variation between patients in intensive care, this development will enable us to treat our patients with severe infections better and protect them from possible harm. Because current solutions have long turnaround times,\u00a0Axithra\u2019s platform will help us to intervene more quickly, improving outcomes of severe infections and reducing the length of stay of patients in the intensive care unit, thereby decreasing costs.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"vlp-link-container vlp-layout-basic wp-block-visual-link-preview-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/itf-world-puts-imec-at-the-center-of-the-global-semiconductor-industry\/\" class=\"vlp-link\" title=\"ITF World puts imec at the center of the global semiconductor industry\"><\/a><div class=\"vlp-layout-zone-side\"><div class=\"vlp-block-2 vlp-link-image\"><\/div><\/div><div class=\"vlp-layout-zone-main\"><div class=\"vlp-block-0 vlp-link-title\">ITF World puts imec at the center of the global semiconductor industry<\/div><div class=\"vlp-block-1 vlp-link-summary\">\u201cI do not need to convince you that the digital and green transition is impossible without semiconductors. It [the semiconductor industry] is the \u201csteam engine\u201d of the ongoing transformation of our economy.&#8221;<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Bringing semiconductor expertise to life sciences<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Axithra\u00a0is an example of how processes developed for the semiconductor industry are now leveraged in the life sciences domain. Imec has built a strong R&amp;D portfolio in this promising area in recent years.\u00a0Axithra\u00a0combines imec\u2019s semiconductor process knowledge with the unique photonics expertise of the Photonics Research Group, an associated imec lab at Ghent University. Prof.\u00a0Roel Baets\u00a0explained: \u201cOur Raman-on-chip technology is the basis of\u00a0Axithra\u2019s solution. Raman spectroscopy is a commonly used technique for accurately identifying and quantifying molecules. Integration on a photonics chip makes this technique much more sensitive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. Leander Van Neste, CEO of\u00a0Axithra,\u00a0commented: \u201cI am delighted with this broad, complementary investor base, including the regional and strategic support. I am convinced we can build our TDM platform to be a true game-changer. Due to the simplicity and speed of our platform, we can customize medication for each patient, even with rapidly changing conditions, and in all sorts of environments, including outside the traditional hospital lab.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Axithra, a spin-off of imec and Ghent University, Belgium, announced a ten million euro seed round to finance its therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) platform. The tool aims at quickly and accurately measuring drug concentrations in a patient&#8217;s blood, wrote imec in a press release. The correct dosage is crucial for many drugs to ensure the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2589,"featured_media":494384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[34665,3009],"tags":[80814,80816,3476,3479,80818,69286],"location":[40240],"article_type":[36684],"serie":[],"archives":[],"internal_archives":[],"reboot-archive":[],"class_list":["post-457495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-startup","tag-axithra","tag-halfgeleiderindustrie-2","tag-imec","tag-imec-nl","tag-medicijnen-2","tag-personalized-medication","location-belgium","article_type-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":{"subtitle":"A spin-off of imec and Ghent University is developing a platform to accurately assess drug concentrations in blood, paving the way for personalized care. ","text_display_homepage":false},"author_meta":{"display_name":"Team IO","author_link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/author\/erikdevries\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Axithra.png","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["<a href=\"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/category\/health\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Health<\/a>","<a href=\"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/category\/startup\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Start-ups<\/a>"],"unlinked":["<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Health<\/span>","<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Start-ups<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["<a href=\"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/category\/startup\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Axithra<\/a>","<a href=\"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/category\/startup\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">halfgeleiderindustrie<\/a>","<a href=\"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/category\/startup\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">imec<\/a>","<a href=\"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/category\/startup\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">imec<\/a>","<a href=\"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/category\/startup\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">medicijnen<\/a>","<a href=\"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/category\/startup\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">personalized medication<\/a>"],"unlinked":["<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Axithra<\/span>","<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">halfgeleiderindustrie<\/span>","<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">imec<\/span>","<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">imec<\/span>","<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">medicijnen<\/span>","<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">personalized medication<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 3 years ago","modified":"Updated 3 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on September 7, 2023","modified":"Updated on September 7, 2023"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on September 7, 2023 10:00 am","modified":"Updated on September 7, 2023 10:00 am"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2589"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457495"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=457495"},{"taxonomy":"article_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_type?post=457495"},{"taxonomy":"serie","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/serie?post=457495"},{"taxonomy":"archives","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/archives?post=457495"},{"taxonomy":"internal_archives","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/internal_archives?post=457495"},{"taxonomy":"reboot-archive","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reboot-archive?post=457495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}