Dialytix 2019–2020
A device for real-time, personalized monitoring during hemodialysis.
Dialytix was founded in 2020 following insights gained during the BioMedical Design Fellowship. During clinical observations, the founding team noticed that dialysis treatment, a life-sustaining therapy for millions, was surprisingly uniform, despite the highly individual nature of patient biology.
They discovered that physicians had limited tools for understanding the true effectiveness of dialysis sessions. Despite vast differences in patient needs and comorbidities, treatments followed a “one-size-fits-all” approach, largely because clinicians lacked access to real-time biological data during dialysis.
This led to the creation of Dialytix, a venture committed to bringing personalized care to dialysis through better monitoring tools.
The Unmet Need
Chronic kidney disease affects over 10% of the global population, and many patients progress to End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD), requiring lifelong dialysis. Unfortunately, survival rates for dialysis patients are poor, and complications are common.
Currently, clinicians rely on a decades-old metric called Kt/Vurea to assess treatment adequacy. However, this metric only measures the clearance of urea — a small molecule — and doesn’t reflect the removal of larger or protein-bound toxins, many of which are more harmful and harder to remove.
The result? Limited understanding of treatment effectiveness and missed opportunities for personalizing therapy. Clinicians often depend on gut feeling or trial and error to adjust treatment parameters, while patients face persistent symptoms and uncertain outcomes.
The Solution
Dialytix is developing an inline spectroscopic sensor that measures the concentration of key uremic toxins in the blood during dialysis — in real time.
This technology allows:
- Continuous, direct blood monitoring during treatment
- Personalized adjustment of dialysis parameters
- Better identification of patients who need alternative or enhanced therapies
The Team
