BENGALURU: Nishant Kumar got an opportunity to go for a summer research internship at the University of Munich Hospital in Germany at the end of his third year at IIT-Bombay , where he was a mechanical engineering student. During the internship, he worked with clinicians and physicists at the Institute of Clinical Neurosciences, and developed an algorithm for eye-gaze tracking.It was during this time that he observed the stark difference in resources between European and Indian hospitals. This turned out to be his calling in life. “I had the opportunity to closely observe the healthcare facilities in the hospital, which was equipped with all the modern medical devices and equipment and state-of-the-art technologies.I also noticed that these hospitals catered to a very low number of patients. This was a situation completely in contrast with the condition in India, where hospitals are often resource-constrained and cater to a large flow of patients,” said Kumar.“This was a turning point in my life, and I decided to utilise my engineering skills into building biomedical devices and applications.” This ‘turning point’ resulted in Embryyo Technologies, which Kumar cofounded with his IIT Bombay classmate Prateek Jain in 2014. The duo started Embryyo after a few years of work experience.Embryyo Technologies is in advanced stages on development of BoxRx , an electronic drug adherence monitoring system. The electronic pill box, which is combined with web and mobile apps and a proprietary sensor strip, helps in the detection of the activity when a pill is removed from a blister packet of medicine. This activity is recorded and transmitted as an SMS to the clinician or the health-worker.“We got the first success in the form of Grand Challenges in TB Control which was a grant award of $30,000 for a period of six months and we were required to develop a drug adherence monitoring system for TB patients in India. IKP Knowledge Park was the organisation administering the project and the project was supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and USAID,” said Kumar.The Pune-based startup is also developing other products like UnFurl , a self-expandable nonvascular stent for oesophageal applications and NeoBrain , a cotside infant brain growth monitoring system.All of these products are in various stages of development. “We have more than 10 inventions in the pipeline in diverse areas such as haematology, maternal and child health and interventional devices,” said Kumar.The startup, which received multiple grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the government’s Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) and others, is looking to license their technology to medical device makers.“Once we have a fully functional prototype with demonstration of the proof of concept, engineering test results, a patent portfolio, early evidence of clinical efficacy and customer validation we will license the technology to interested medical devices manufacturing companies for further uptake, distribution and sale.We expect some of our early licensing deals to happen in Q3 and Q4 this year,” said Kumar. Embryyo Technologies is also looking to raise around $2 million in the next three to five months.“We funded them (Embryyo Technologies) through the Grand Challenges in TB Control Program. They are a young dynamic team with good work experience in MNCs. The founders are technically strong. We are happy to see the BoxRx product come out later this year,” said Vikraman Venu Saranyan, vice-president at IKP Knowledge Park.