Most women experience a hormone imbalance at some stage in their life, and the consequences can be serious.
It’s crucial to track sex hormones for fertility and menopause care and the treatment of conditions like polycystic ovary syndrome. At the moment, women typically take blood tests to monitor their hormones, providing a snapshot of data.
But a U.K. start-up launched through the University of Southampton’s Future Worlds accelerator program wants to make this information available 24/7.
Founded by optoelectronics researcher Stefan-Tudor Ilie and business graduate Mariajosé Argote, POMHealth is developing a prototype for a real-time continuous hormone monitor. Fertility is their first target.
Getting the timing right for egg retrieval and embryo implantation is “critical” for in vitro fertilization, Argote tells me. “You need to understand what your hormones are doing right now.” In some cases, women go to clinics “even daily to monitor the timing,” she adds — a burden their product could remove.
Physicians in the space agree. London-based senior gynaecologist Ed Coats, who is not involved in the start-up, told me that an “accurate, reliable and affordable home device” could be “invaluable” for fertility patients.
Although fertility treatments are available free under the country’s public health system, eligibility criteria and other factors mean many patients still seek private care. Rather than attending their local hospital, these patients may end up traveling much further for care.
A continuous monitor “would allow many more patients to access clinics that may offer the best success rates and care,” Coats said, adding he was sure facilities would be keen to use the tech if the price point was right.
Similar products have been life-changing for some patients. Continuous glucose monitoring, which uses similar technology, is now standard treatment in the U.K. for those with Type 1 diabetes. It’s offered free by the country’s National Health Service.
CGMs remove the need for multiple daily blood tests and provide a far greater level of data for use in everyday treatment decisions.
Ultimately, Argote and Ilie want women will be able to access information about their own hormones in a similar way. But for now, they plan to work closely with fertility doctors, who can use their expertise to put the data to best use and provide as much evidence as possible for the device’s utility.
For the tech to work, Coats said it would be crucial that women were guided by their clinicians to use the device accurately “as timing of hormone testing is critical,” he told me. “That said, depending on the clinical situation and correct usage, this could be a powerful addition to the current hormone monitoring options.”
Ilie and Argote hope their prototype will be ready within a year. They’re building on existing technologies already used to monitor health signals via interstitial fluid.
“We’re combining this with integrated silicon photonic circuits. This technology has been used mostly for high-speed data transmission or optical fibers,” Ilie explains.
He has an impressive technical background, having worked as an electrical engineer at blue chip companies before moving to CERN, which hosts the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland. He earned a PhD in optical biosensors last year.
After fertility, Ilie and Argote want to help women going through peri-menopause and menopause. They’re currently focusing on estradiol, progesterone, and luteinizing hormone, but say they could eventually monitor other hormones like follicle stimulating hormone, testosterone, cortisol and thyroid hormone.
They presented their work at the investor-focused Future Worlds Demo Day in central London last week alongside other tech entrepreneurs linked to the University of Southampton.
The accelerator aims to give academics the business tools they need to make their product ideas a reality. It’s been mentoring students and helping them find investment since 2015.
Its most successful alumni include space archaeologist Iris Kramer, who pioneered the use of satellite images and AI to find new archaeological sites. Kramer, alongside AI sports entrepreneur Ryan Beal, have both featured on recent Forbes’ 30 under 30 lists.
Inspired by the Silicon Valley tech scene, it fosters a handful of nascent start-ups every year. It’s seen its students net some £40 million from investors to launch their companies.
“Lots of people look at the U.S. and all these great things that come out of universities there. We have just as good quality in terms of the intellectual property, the research, the base that’s there,” Ben Clark, Future Worlds director, told me. “It’s then about the belief and the culture and the mindset to say ‘why not’ rather than ‘why’.”
