Hepcidin as a biomarker

It is estimated that more than 4 billion people will face problems in their health in the future such as anemia, iron metabolism disorders, blood pressure, kidney disease and cancer. The vast majority of these health problems are on the rise. 
 
Variations in the concentration of hepcidin have been found e.g. anemia, autoimmune diseases associated with chronic inflammation, cancer, chronic kidney disease, iron accumulation disease, and hypoxia. Recent scientific studies have shown that hepcidin is also a significant biomarker in the hospital-induced form of Covid-19. However, to date, measuring hepcidin from the circulation has been problematic due to shortcomings in the available measurement methods. 
 
We were the first in the world to find that hepcidin, which regulates the body's iron metabolism, is able to block the action of the renin enzyme. Based on this observation, we can develop reagents capable of determining the exact serum concentration of active hepcidin. Commercially available reagents enable a much wider user base than at present.  
 
Our finding bring a new market for the measurement of hepcidin in serum. Measuring the concentration of hepcidin in a biological sample allows its use as part of disease diagnosis and aims at new treatment practices, as well as deepening knowledge about its significance in the human body. There are no equivalent enzymatic competing product on the market and our method combines the best features of existing methods, making our method fast, easy to use, accurate and cost effective. 
 
The project will develop reagents suitable for clinical and basic research, protect their IPR and explore how to commercialize them to the identified global customer groups. The project will develop a deeper understanding of the market, customers and competition so that we can decide on the best commercialization path, business model and scaling plan.

Business Finland: Research to Business funding