Meet UCHU Biosensors Inc., a NEMIC Fellow startup disrupting the preventative healthcare industry
5 Questions with UCHU’s Co-Founder & COO, Noah Hill
Noah Hill, Uchu Biosensors Inc., Co-Founder & COO
Meet NEMIC Fellow Startup, Uchu through 5 questions with Co-Founder & COO, Noah Hill. Uchu is a fellow of a NEMIC Individualized Program where we oversee business development activities and provide fundraising support on their path to commercialization.
1. Tell us about Uchu, your team, and your technology.
Uchu is developing an integrated oral pH monitoring system to prevent tooth decay and oral health problems. Tooth decay is the largest disease in the world, and oral health problems are referred to as a “silent epidemic” by the Surgeon General. It affects 92% of American adults, leads to 200 million annual tooth restorations, and causes $124B in annual expenses between patients and insurers.
There is a population of high-risk patients who spend thousands every year out of pocket with no end in sight, who we specifically aim to help.
The root of the problem is that tooth decay is caused by acid. When the mouth is overly acidic, teeth begin to decay. Patients can improve their oral health and prevent problems by controlling acid. National guidelines recommend that dentists control the pH of high-risk patients. However, neither patients nor dentists have the ability to monitor or correct acid levels. The tools to track acid are one-time paper strips that have been around for one hundred years, and dentists can only use these once every 6 months during patient checkups. Dentists and patients miss all of the important continual data between checkups, which results in ineffective prevention and rampant rates of decay.
That’s why we’re developing a tiny sensor worn on one tooth to track acidity. Our sensor continually monitors acid and transmits information to a patient’s smartphone. Patients can see the times their teeth are decaying to correct their imbalances in real time and take control of oral health. Patients will receive notifications when acid levels are unhealthy, along with a specific product recommendation to effectively mitigate the problem. Dentists can see their patients’ complete acidity profile for the 6 months between checkups, serving as a window into the patients’ health to monitor and improve the effectiveness of prevention strategies.
Meet Daniel Weinstein, Co-Founder & CEO
We have a great team to tackle this problem and bring our solution to patients. Daniel Weinstein, our CEO, is an accomplished biomedical engineer with 4 years of experience in laboratory and nanoscale biosensing research. Saam Bozorg, our Director of Clinical Outreach, received his D.M.D. from Tufts University of Dental Medicine and is currently studying orthodontics at the University of Connecticut. Noah Hill, our COO and lead software engineer, is a talented firmware developer with experience in embedded IoT systems, full stack development, and distributed system design. Bill Gorman, our Quality and Regulatory Manager, has 30+ years of experience in medical device development and has 15 patents. We also have a strong team of advisors, including NEMIC, executives at insurance companies, engineering product managers, business leaders, and medical experts.
2. What was your latest milestone achieved on your path to commercialization?
Our latest milestone was finishing our proof-of-concept mouthguard sensor, raising a pre-seed round of $400k and being accepted into the HAX accelerator program. This is a big milestone for us, as we moved to Shenzhen, China and can now be laser focused on rapidly developing our technology and move towards our next milestones.
3. What have you been recently been working on with NEMIC?
We have most recently been working with NEMIC to create a professionally designed investor pitch deck, build out our financial models, and further develop our business plan. NEMIC has been incredibly helpful in providing insights to exactly what investors discuss during diligence, so we can include exactly what investors need right in our deck. We have also been working with NEMIC to close out our pre-seed round of $500k, and we just pitched at softball event where NEMIC invited many investors within their network.
4. Tell us about your trip to shenzhen, China. What have you been working on there?
We are currently working in Shenzhen, China because we were funded by SOSV and accepted into the HAX startup accelerator. Shenzhen is a fantastic place to be for rapid hardware development and is referred to as “the world’s factory”, because approximately 90% of the world’s electronics pass through Shenzhen at some point. The streets are filled with electronics markets where you can find anything you could ever need, 24 hour PCB manufacturing services, 12 hour online delivery platforms, and much more - all for very good prices. Due to this unmatched abundance of electronics resources within Shenzhen, four weeks of hardware development in the United States can be done in just one week here. We have been leveraging these resources to rapidly iterate and advance our technology. Specifically, we are miniaturizing our prototype to fit around one tooth, running accelerated lifetime tests, and building out our software systems. We have also been establishing relationships with suppliers, and personally visiting potential manufacturing partners in person. At the end of the HAX program, we plan to have a fully miniaturized device ready to raise a seed round and begin the regulatory testing process.
5. As Med Tech entrepreneurs, what is something you have recently learned that could help streamline the process for others innovating in the industry.
We recently learned that the number of De Novo applications approved by the FDA has been steadily increasing every year since 2009. In 2018, the FDA approved a record number of 44 De Novo applications, which is substantially more than any previous single year. This is largely due to the recent proposal of a new De Novo rule by the FDA, which provides improved structure, clarity and transparency on the classification process. This helps companies better navigate the De Novo classification process and submit high quality proposals, making it easier for companies and the FDA to work together and bring new technologies to the market. This is great news for us, as our technology will go through the Class II De Novo pathway.