By Fred Grier (San Diego Business Journal)
Tuesday, Januaray 26, 2021
San Diego-based Hydrostasis, creator of hydration monitoring solutions for smart device manufacturers, has been issued a patent by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for “tissue hydration monitor.”
Debbie Chen, founder and chief executive at Hydrostasis, said the recently issued patent serves as the cornerstone of an intellectual property portfolio covering the company’s hydration monitoring solutions.
In the last decade, all-female invented patents constituted only about 4% of issued patents, which makes this an extraordinary milestone for Chen.
“The USPTO allowance of our patent application is a major milestone for Hydrostasis, Inc. and further confirms our leadership role in developing personalized and actionable hydration monitoring solutions,” said Chen.
“Human hydration is complex. This important step will aid us in helping individuals, especially older adults and remotely-monitored patients, know their hydration levels and optimize their health,” she added.
Founded in 2017, Hydrostasis is a seed-stage technology company focused on developing personalized and actionable hydration monitoring solutions.
Designed for athletes, it uses proprietary algorithms and its Personal Hydration IndexTM to track their hydration levels. In particular, its devices use a light-based sensor to gain hydration information from muscle tissue.
Most recently Hydrostasis completed internal studies, which showed that its solutions can detect both fluid intake and loss prior to the onset of thirst.
In addition, the company is running pilots to study at-risk populations including athletes, older adults, patients with chronic kidney disease and patients with chronic heart failure.
Hydrostasis’ team of five and is headquartered in La Jolla. The company has raised a friends-and-family round, as well as $20,000 from Ad Astra Ventures, a female-led incubator program.
Hydrostasis also received a subgrant from Connect w/ San Diego Venture Group, and most recently landed a $50,000 grant from the U.S. Air Force Small Business Innovation Resource Program. Chen is also a graduate of and entrepreneur-in-residence at UC San Diego.
