BiomeSense won University of Chicago Innovation Fund's competition for its proposed biosensor that could provide medical feedback based on the bacteria found in a patient's faeces.

BiomeSense, a US-based biosensor developer spun out from University of Chicago, secured up to $250,000 on Wednesday from the university’s Innovation Fund.

BiomeSense is developing biosensor technology that improves the feedback gained from clinical therapies by evaluating the bacteria in a patient’s faeces. The system works through a toilet accessory installed in the patient’s home, sending sampled data to a cloud-based platform for monitoring by clinicians.

The spinout will initially target researchers who could deploy the device in clinical trial settings, however the sensors may eventually also be marketed as a direct-to-consumer product.

Jack Gilbert, a professor of surgery at University of Chicago Medicine, co-founded BiomeSense alongside Savas Tay, associate professor at the university’s Institute of Molecular Engineering, and Kevin Honaker, a graduate from the same institution’s Booth School of Business.

Gilbert said: “The bacteria in your poop tells you a lot about your health. We can use this information to tell you how you are responding to a drug or to predict how you might respond to a drug.”

Innovation Fund is managed by University of Chicago’s commercialisation hub, Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

BiomeSense secured the fund’s backing after its victory a startup competition final which also featured health payment platform developer ForseeABill, maternity device manufacturer LiveBeat, digital device screen developer Nanopattern Technologies and mortgage platform developer SafeRate.

Nancy Harvey, managing director and director of technology commercialisation at Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship, said: “The five teams presenting in this cycle’s finals represent the Physical Sciences division, the Biological Sciences division, the Medical Center and Booth School of Business.

“I have no doubt that they will follow the successful companies before them that have gone on to raise external capital and build exciting businesses.”