SensUs
Event 2024

SensUs 2024 challenges ambitious students from all over the globe to form a student Team and start developing an innovative biosensing system for continously monitoring kidney failure. The event will take place during the SensUs Innovation Days where teams will test and present their biosensors. 

The theme of SensUs 2024 is Kidney failure, also referred to as acute kidney injury (AKI). 10% of the population globally is affected by chronic kidney disease, with over 750,000 people in the US alone. Kidney failure is characterized by one or both kidneys losing their renal function, namely, the ability to filter waste matter from the blood. This results in an accumulation of waste in the bloodstream, altering the ionic homeostasis of the blood. There are 5 stages of kidney failure depending on glomerular filtration rate (GFR) which measures the blood filtration rates of the kidneys in (mL/min), with the preliminary signs advancing to kidney failure including fatigue, nausea and swelling. Generally, the clearance of substances that are freely filtered but not secreted or reabsorbed by the kidneys is used to estimate the GFR in clinical settings, with creatinine meeting the criteria.

Creatinine is a product of the metabolism of creatine, which is produced in the liver from three amino acids, methionine, arginine, and glycine, and stored in muscle to be used as a source of energy once phosphorylated. Creatinine is normally excreted through the kidneys. Healthy kidneys are responsible for filtering creatinine out of the bloodstream, as it is a freely filtered metabolite that is not secreted or reabsorbed. Consequently, during kidney failure when the GFR reduces, there is a buildup of high labels of creatinine in the blood.