Summary
- Profile Type
- Technology offer
- POD Reference
- TOGB20251112017
- Term of Validity
- 12 November 2025 - 12 November 2026
- Company's Country
- United Kingdom
- Type of partnership
- Research and development cooperation agreement
- Targeted Countries
- Afghanistan
- Aland Islands
- Albania
- Algeria
- American Samoa
- Andorra
- Angola
- Anguilla
- Antarctica
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Aruba
- Australia
- Austria
- Azerbaijan
- Bahamas
- Bahrain
- Bangladesh
- Barbados
- Belarus
- Belgium
- Belize
- Benin
- Bermuda
- Bhutan
- Bolivia
- Bonaire, Saint Eustatius and Saba
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Botswana
- Bouvet Island
- British Indian Ocean Territory
- British Virgin Islands
- Brunei
- Bulgaria
- Burkina Faso
- Burundi
- Cabo Verde
- Cambodia
- Cameroon
- Canada
- Cayman Islands
- Central African Republic
- Chad
- Chile
- China
- Christmas Island
- Cocos Islands
- Colombia
- Comoros
- Cook Islands
- Costa Rica
- Croatia
- Cuba
- Curacao
- Cyprus
- Czechia
- Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Denmark
- Djibouti
- Dominica
- Dominican Republic
- Ecuador
- Egypt
- El Salvador
- Equatorial Guinea
- Eritrea
- Estonia
- Eswatini
- Ethiopia
- Falkland Islands
- Faroe Islands
- Fiji
- Finland
- France
- French Guiana
- French Southern Territories
- Gabon
- Gambia
- Georgia
- Germany
- Ghana
- Gibraltar
- Greece
- Greenland
- Grenada
- Guadeloupe
- Guam
- Guatemala
- Guernsey
- Guinea
- Guinea-Bissau
- Guyana
- Haiti
- Heard Island and McDonald Islands
- Honduras
- Hong Kong
- Hungary
- Iceland
- India
- Indonesia
- Iran
- Iraq
- Ireland
- Isle of Man
- Israel
- Italy
- Ivory Coast
- Jamaica
- Japan
- Jersey
- Jordan
- Kazakhstan
- Kenya
- Kiribati
- Kosovo
- Kuwait
- Kyrgyzstan
- Laos
- Latvia
- Lebanon
- Lesotho
- Liberia
- Libya
- Liechtenstein
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Macao
- Madagascar
- Malawi
- Malaysia
- Maldives
- Mali
- Malta
- Marshall Islands
- Martinique
- Mauritania
- Mauritius
- Mayotte
- Mexico
- Micronesia
- Moldova
- Monaco
- Mongolia
- Montenegro
- Montserrat
- Morocco
- Mozambique
- Myanmar
- Namibia
- Nauru
- Nepal
- Netherlands
- Netherlands Antilles
- New Caledonia
- Nicaragua
- Niger
- Nigeria
- Niue
- Norfolk Island
- North Korea
- North Macedonia
- Northern Mariana Islands
- Norway
- Oman
- Pakistan
- Palau
- Palestinian Territory
- Panama
- Papua New Guinea
- Paraguay
- Peru
- Philippines
- Pitcairn
- Poland
- Portugal
- Puerto Rico
- Qatar
- Republic of the Congo
- Reunion
- Romania
- Russia
- Rwanda
- Saint Barthelemy
- Saint Helena
- Saint Kitts and Nevis
- Saint Lucia
- Saint Martin
- Saint Pierre and Miquelon
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
- Samoa
- San Marino
- Sao Tome and Principe
- Saudi Arabia
- Senegal
- Serbia
- Seychelles
- Sierra Leone
- Singapore
- Sint Maarten
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Solomon Islands
- Somalia
- South Africa
- South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
- South Sudan
- Spain
- Sri Lanka
- Sudan
- Suriname
- Svalbard and Jan Mayen
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Syria
- Taiwan
- Tajikistan
- Tanzania
- Thailand
- Timor Leste
- Togo
- Tokelau
- Tonga
- Trinidad and Tobago
- Tunisia
- Turkey
- Turkmenistan
- Turks and Caicos Islands
- Tuvalu
- U.S. Virgin Islands
- Uganda
- Ukraine
- United Arab Emirates
- United Kingdom
- United States
- United States Minor Outlying Islands
- Uruguay
- Uzbekistan
- Vanuatu
- Vatican
- Venezuela
- Vietnam
- Wallis and Futuna
- Western Sahara
- Yemen
- Zambia
- Zimbabwe
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General information
- Short Summary
- A UK SME has developed a disruptive method of assessing microvascular health via measuring the endothelial glycocalyx, a sugar-rich layer that coats the body’s blood vessels. This is a blood based test that measures glycocalyx signatures to monitor endothelial and microvascular response to intervention and therapy. Seeking research cooperation agreements, particularly in the cardio-renal-metabolic field for pilot projects to assess the technology’s role in drug development.
- Full Description
-
Backed by research led by the Bristol Renal research group at University of Bristol Medical School, the company is an early-stage spinout in the UK which has developed a radically new low-cost, rapid, and scalable testing method for evaluating microvascular health and disease. This method works by providing a practical readout of the endothelial glycocalyx (EN-GLX) – a sugar-rich layer that coats the blood vessel wall. Analysing EN-GLX currently requires invasive tissue biopsies and high-resolution microscopy. This limits the utility of endothelial glycocalyx as a biomarker for doctors, scientists and drug developers.
The company’s assay can provide this same level of information, but in a blood sample to assess endothelial glycocalyx health, integrity, and makeup.
The company seeks a research collaboration agreement to pilot its technology in drug development and clinical trial programmes. The company has a focus on cardiovascular-renal-metabolic (CVRM) disease, the progression of which is driven by changing microvascular and endothelial health, including EN-GLX. However, other areas of interest include vascular dementia, pre-eclampsia, and critical illness.
The company seeks to partner with drug development teams in all sectors, including clinical researchers, Biotech and Pharma, and across all stages of the drug development process, from early-stage in vivo trials, through to clinical evaluation of drugs directly or indirectly targeting the vasculature, endothelium, or endothelial glycocalyx. The company is initially most open to pilot projects involving samples sent to its own lab for in-house testing. The partner’s lab will be actively generating or collecting whole blood samples (human patient and/or rodent) and have the ethical approvals in place.
The company is particularly interested in partnering with drug companies and drug developers in Europe and the USA, working on chronic kidney disease, diabetic kidney disease and related cardiovascular treatments. Particular drug classes where the technology can provide valuable insight to aid drug development and clinical trials include mineralocorticoid receptor inhibitors, endothelin receptor antagonists, matrix metalloproteinase inhibitors, and heparinase inhibitors. - Advantages and Innovations
-
The technology introduces a minimally invasive, rapid blood test for assessing microvascular health, replacing expensive imaging and invasive biopsies currently required for this information.
Conventional methods for monitoring cardio-renal-metabolic therapy—such as GFR and albuminuria for kidney function or Echo and ECG for cardiac performance—measure only late-stage disease outcomes. These downstream indicators change slowly, masking the underlying microvascular and endothelial dysfunction that drive disease progression. Early, dynamic measurement of these upstream factors is essential for personalised and timely intervention.
Existing gold-standard techniques such as quantitative angiography are invasive and time-consuming. Non-invasive alternatives like flow-mediated dilation or GlycoCheck imaging of sub-lingual micro-vessels are limited by operator variability, focus only on large-vessel function, and lack reproducibility. Other imaging tools (OCT, super-resolution ultrasound) remain expensive, technically demanding, and unsuitable for routine clinical or research use.
In contrast, this technology quantifies microvascular health biochemically by analysing the endothelial glycocalyx from a simple blood sample. It detects subtle, early molecular changes invisible to imaging approaches, offering a faster and more scalable route to assessing vascular health. Its fluorescence spectroscopy-based format integrates easily into existing R&D and diagnostic workflows without specialised training.
By directly measuring the biochemical integrity of the glycocalyx—an upstream biomarker of vascular disease—this technology bridges the current gap between costly imaging and delayed functional readouts, enabling earlier diagnosis, dynamic therapy monitoring, and broad clinical adoption. - Stage of Development
- Lab tested
- Sustainable Development Goals
- Goal 3: Good Health and Well-being
- IPR status
- IPR applied but not yet granted
Partner Sought
- Expected Role of a Partner
-
The company is primarily seeking industry partners, specifically Pharmaceutical companies, Biotech companies, or Contract Manufacturing Organisations (CMOs), and other entities involved in the drug development and clinical trials pipelines, including academic and clinical research teams.
The primary role for potential partners would be to engage in pilot projects to explore the application of the company's glycocalyx biomarker technology within their specific drug development programs. This involves collaborating to determine if the data generated by the company's assay is useful for assessing the efficacy or safety of the partner's drugs, particularly those targeting the vascular system, microvascular system, endothelium or endothelial glycocalyx.
These collaborations are crucial as the company cannot perform these validation experiments independently. The desired outcome is to secure early interest from industry partners and identify clear commercial opportunities for the technology. The company is looking for partners in Europe and the USA, but is open to partners from any country - Type and Size of Partner
- SME <=10
- Type of partnership
- Research and development cooperation agreement
Dissemination
- Technology keywords
- 06001005 - Diagnostics, Diagnosis
- 06001013 - Medical Technology / Biomedical Engineering
- 06001011 - Heart and blood circulation illnesses
- 06001002 - Clinical Research, Trials
- Market keywords
- 05001001 - Diagnostic services
- 05007007 - Other medical/health related (not elsewhere classified)
- 05005011 - Circulatory diseases
- Sector Groups Involved
- Health
- Targeted countries
- Afghanistan
- Aland Islands
- Albania
- Algeria
- American Samoa
- Andorra
- Angola
- Anguilla
- Antarctica
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Argentina
- Armenia
- Aruba
- Australia
- Austria
- Azerbaijan
- Bahamas
- Bahrain
- Bangladesh
- Barbados
- Belarus
- Belgium
- Belize
- Benin
- Bermuda
- Bhutan
- Bolivia
- Bonaire, Saint Eustatius and Saba
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Botswana
- Bouvet Island
- British Indian Ocean Territory
- British Virgin Islands
- Brunei
- Bulgaria
- Burkina Faso
- Burundi
- Cabo Verde
- Cambodia
- Cameroon
- Canada
- Cayman Islands
- Central African Republic
- Chad
- Chile
- China
- Christmas Island
- Cocos Islands
- Colombia
- Comoros
- Cook Islands
- Costa Rica
- Croatia
- Cuba
- Curacao
- Cyprus
- Czechia
- Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Denmark
- Djibouti
- Dominica
- Dominican Republic
- Ecuador
- Egypt
- El Salvador
- Equatorial Guinea
- Eritrea
- Estonia
- Eswatini
- Ethiopia
- Falkland Islands
- Faroe Islands
- Fiji
- Finland
- France
- French Guiana
- French Polynesia
- French Southern Territories
- Gabon
- Gambia
- Georgia
- Germany
- Ghana
- Gibraltar
- Greece
- Greenland
- Grenada
- Guadeloupe
- Guam
- Guatemala
- Guernsey
- Guinea
- Guinea-Bissau
- Guyana
- Haiti
- Heard Island and McDonald Islands
- Honduras
- Hong Kong
- Hungary
- Iceland
- India
- Indonesia
- Iran
- Iraq
- Ireland
- Isle of Man
- Israel
- Italy
- Ivory Coast
- Jamaica
- Japan
- Jersey
- Jordan
- Kazakhstan
- Kenya
- Kiribati
- Kosovo
- Kuwait
- Kyrgyzstan
- Laos
- Latvia
- Lebanon
- Lesotho
- Liberia
- Libya
- Liechtenstein
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Macao
- Madagascar
- Malawi
- Malaysia
- Maldives
- Mali
- Malta
- Marshall Islands
- Martinique
- Mauritania
- Mauritius
- Mayotte
- Mexico
- Micronesia
- Moldova
- Monaco
- Mongolia
- Montenegro
- Montserrat
- Morocco
- Mozambique
- Myanmar
- Namibia
- Nauru
- Nepal
- Netherlands
- Netherlands Antilles
- New Caledonia
- Nicaragua
- Niger
- Nigeria
- Niue
- Norfolk Island
- North Korea
- North Macedonia
- Northern Mariana Islands
- Norway
- Oman
- Pakistan
- Palau
- Palestinian Territory
- Panama
- Papua New Guinea
- Paraguay
- Peru
- Philippines
- Pitcairn
- Poland
- Portugal
- Puerto Rico
- Qatar
- Republic of the Congo
- Reunion
- Romania
- Russia
- Rwanda
- Saint Barthelemy
- Saint Helena
- Saint Kitts and Nevis
- Saint Lucia
- Saint Martin
- Saint Pierre and Miquelon
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
- Samoa
- San Marino
- Sao Tome and Principe
- Saudi Arabia
- Senegal
- Serbia
- Seychelles
- Sierra Leone
- Singapore
- Sint Maarten
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Solomon Islands
- Somalia
- South Africa
- South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
- South Sudan
- Spain
- Sri Lanka
- Sudan
- Suriname
- Svalbard and Jan Mayen
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Syria
- Taiwan
- Tajikistan
- Tanzania
- Thailand
- Timor Leste
- Togo
- Tokelau
- Tonga
- Trinidad and Tobago
- Tunisia
- Turkey
- Turkmenistan
- Turks and Caicos Islands
- Tuvalu
- U.S. Virgin Islands
- Uganda
- Ukraine
- United Arab Emirates
- United Kingdom
- United States
- United States Minor Outlying Islands
- Uruguay
- Uzbekistan
- Vanuatu
- Vatican
- Venezuela
- Vietnam
- Wallis and Futuna
- Western Sahara
- Yemen
- Zambia
- Zimbabwe