Sisi Li, PhD, Head of Group Bioanalytics in Industrial Media at the Fraunhofer Institute for Microengineering and Microsystems (IMM). Sisi Li holds a PhD in Physical Chemistry/Microfluidics from the École Normale Supérieure in Paris and has been working for Fraunhofer IMM in Mainz, Germany, for over three years. She is part of the team that initiated the collaboration between Ki’tech and Fraunhofer IMM.

Sisi Li, why was Fraunhofer IMM, a German research center with an excellent international reputation, interested in Ki’tech’s project?

The founding duo, composed of Dr. Gilles Schutz, nephrologist, and Michel Fallah, engineer, quickly convinced us of their ability and determination to bring the project to fruition. Drawing on his highly expert knowledge of the field, Dr. Gilles Schutz perfectly demonstrated the need for these medical devices, both for patients and practitioners. The Ki’tech project is serious and ambitious.

From a scientific perspective, the Ki’tech project is exciting. We are convinced of the technological feasibility and the value of exploiting metabolic data. The founders of Ki’tech are open to the various solutions we propose. The collaboration evolves in a climate of mutual trust, an essential strength for long-term cooperation.

The research we are conducting for Ki’tech is progressing very rapidly. Our respective teams meet weekly. At Fraunhofer, one team is focused on sensors and the other on the extraction and analysis of interstitial fluid. Now, they are mobilizing for the preclinical testing phase of in vivo development.