NEW YORK, Sept. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Yesse Technologies, Inc., a New York-headquartered biotechnology company, announces the successful identification of biosensors implicated in detecting the smell associated with Parkinson’s disease and the manufacturing of its second nose-on-chip prototype developed by nanotechnology R&D partner imec, marking two important Company milestones in building the hardware to decode the sense of smell.

“Yesse Technologies has raised over $9.5M to date and has proven that the team is fit to continuously deliver on its milestones, even in the most challenging circumstances. Having the biggest technical hurdles now de-risked, we are in a perfect position to raise a Series A to take the Company to the next level,” says Dr. Charlotte D’Hulst, Co-Founder and CEO.

Through its proprietary ORion21™ genetic platform, Yesse Technologies combines the unique biology of the nose with state-of-the art silicon technology, powered by imec. Yesse Technologies’ nose-on-chip will parallel how a true nose works. The solution employs engineered biomaterial that contains the very sensors that the nose uses to detect smells. Serving as an odor scanner, this nose-on-chip aims to unlock a first-ever Odoromics™ database which paves the way to a myriad of applications. Yesse Technologies currently focuses on sniffing out Parkinson’s disease and decoding scents for the Fragrance & Flavor Industry.

With support from the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, the Company is employing its nose-on-chip platform to detect the characteristic smell linked to Parkinson’s disease (PD). Yesse Technologies scientists recently have validated the presence of this distinctive smell and have confirmed a set of candidate odor sensors that are specifically activated by the odor in different cohorts of Parkinson’s patients. A first lab-based version of the PD nose-on-chip is estimated to be ready by early 2021.

“The Yesse Technologies chip could ultimately allow Parkinson’s patients to be diagnosed in the very early stages of the disease before the external symptoms are even noticeable. This will enable early, more efficient treatments, which will significantly improve the quality of life of Parkinson’s patients and may even open the door for a cure down the road,” says Prof. Paul Feinstein, Co-Founder and CSO of Yesse Technologies, Inc.

“Imec’s microfluidic chip with micrometer-size features and integrated odor sensors achieves a high sensing accuracy enabling Yesse Technologies to scale the number of tests performed with the same amount of biomaterial, highlighting the potential of silicon nanotechnology for life sciences,” says Luc Van den hove, president and CEO at imec. “Demonstrating odor activation on the current prototype will be the key milestone in our collaboration with imec, co-funded by VLAIO, the Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship Agency,” says Dr. Elke Giets, Managing Director of Yesse Technologies Europe and Executive VP Business & Strategy.

In anticipation of a fully developed silicon solution covering the entire human odor sensing repertoire, the Company is currently innovating in the Flavor & Fragrance market by decoding smells of interest using a lab test measuring specific odor responses on the ORion21™ platform. To fuel these commercial activities, the Company was recently awarded 3 additional grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, bringing the total amount of NSF funding to-date up to $1,675,000.

On October 1^st 2020, Yesse Technologies is organizing a virtual panel on decoding the sense of smell featuring experts in the science and art of smell, technology and A.I. (Google Brain). The panel is co-hosted by Alexandria Venture Investments and imec.xpand and is open to the public. Please RSVP here.

About Yesse Technologies

Yesse Technologies (formerly known as MouSensor) is an early-stage biotech company building a technology platform that harnesses the biology of the nose and merges it with cutting-edge nanotechnology. The Company’s mission is to decode the last mystery of the senses, Olfaction, and to unlock the power of a new field, Odoromics™, disrupting Flavor & Fragrance R&D pipelines and enabling odor-based disease diagnostics. Yesse Technologies’ core technology, the ORion21^™ genetic platform, is the product of over 30 years of fundamental research on the molecular biology of the sense of smell and is exclusively licensed from The City University of New York. To fuel its chip R&D, Yesse Technologies has established a research partnership with imec (Belgium), an internationally recognized R&D powerhouse for nanochip technology. For more information, visit yesse.tech.

About imec

Imec is a world-leading research and innovation hub in nanoelectronics and digital technologies. The combination of our widely acclaimed leadership in microchip technology and profound software and ICT expertise is what makes us unique. By leveraging our world-class infrastructure and local and global ecosystem of partners across a multitude of industries, we create groundbreaking innovation in application domains such as healthcare, smart cities and mobility, logistics and manufacturing, energy and education. As a trusted partner for companies, startups and universities, we bring together more than 4,000 brilliant minds from almost 100 nationalities. Imec is headquartered in Leuven, Belgium and has distributed R&D groups at a number of Flemish universities, in the Netherlands, Taiwan, USA, and offices in China, India and Japan. In 2019, imec’s revenue (P&L) totaled 640 million euro. Further information on imec can be found at www.imec-int.com.
Imec is a registered trademark for the activities of IMEC International (a legal entity set up under Belgian law as a “stichting van openbaar nut”), imec Belgium (IMEC vzw supported by the Government of Flanders), imec the Netherlands (Stichting IMEC Nederland, part of Holst Centre and OnePlanet, supported by the Dutch Government), imec Taiwan (IMEC Taiwan Co.), imec China (IMEC Microelectronics (Shanghai) Co. Ltd.), imec India (Imec India Private Limited) and imec Florida (IMEC USA nanoelectronics design center).

About the National Science Foundation’s Small Business Programs

America’s Seed Fund powered by the National Science Foundation (NSF) awards $200 million annually to startups and small businesses, transforming scientific discovery into products and services with commercial and societal impact. Startups working across almost all areas of science and technology can receive up to $1.5 million in non-dilutive funds to support research and development (R&D), helping de-risk technology for commercial success. America’s Seed Fund is congressionally mandated through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. The NSF is an independent federal agency with a budget of about $8.1 billion that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. To learn more about the NSF SBIR/STTR program, visit: seedfund.nsf.gov.

About The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research

As the world’s largest nonprofit funder of Parkinson’s research, The Michael J. Fox Foundation is dedicated to accelerating a cure for Parkinson’s disease and improved therapies for those living with the condition today. The Foundation pursues its goals through an aggressively funded, highly targeted research program coupled with active global engagement of scientists, Parkinson’s patients, business leaders, clinical trial participants, donors and volunteers. In addition to funding more than $800 million in research to date, the Foundation has fundamentally altered the trajectory of progress toward a cure. Operating at the hub of worldwide Parkinson’s research, the Foundation forges groundbreaking collaborations with industry leaders, academic scientists and government research funders; increases the flow of participants into Parkinson’s disease clinical trials with its online tool, Fox Trial Finder; promotes Parkinson’s awareness through high-profile advocacy, events and outreach; and coordinates the grassroots involvement of thousands of Team Fox members around the world. For more information, visit www.michaeljfox.org.

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SOURCE Yesse Technologies, Inc.