This Silicon Valley startup has developed a device that could help patients with lung ailments, including Covid-19. Here's how.

Dr. Maria Artunduaga knows intimately how difficult it can be for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, to accurately monitor their symptoms.

Her grandmother suffered and eventually died from the disease.

"Even though we come from a family of physicians, it was very hard to figure out when her symptoms were worsening," Artunduaga said.

Typically, patients with COPD have to either do their best to describe their symptoms to their doctor, or they have to travel to their doctor's office and get hooked up to a large, bulky machine that can assess how their lungs are functioning.

Artunduaga, a former surgeon and medical researcher, figured there had to be a better way. While working on a master's degree from the University of California, Berkeley, in translational medicine — a program that focuses on turning medical innovations into actual products and services — she started developing a prototype for a small device that could allow COPD patients to easily and remotely monitor their symptoms. Her work on the gadget ended up leading her to found Respira Labs in 2018.

The device, which she named Sylvee, after her grandmother, can measure the amount of air trapped in patients' lungs by transmitting a sound from its speakers and listening with its microphones for how that sound passes through patients' bodies.

Patients wear the device around the lower part of their rib cages. A corresponding phone app continuously collects and analyzes the data it generates and can share that data with their physicians.

In addition to being more convenient for patients and potentially more accurate, Sylvee, as a remote, telehealth device, is in-line with industry trends, said Artunduaga, Respira's CEO.

"A lot of hospital visits are moving to the home," she said. She continued: "Everything is becoming remote."

Respira is testing its flagship device

While many companies are now in the telehealth field and they've collectively raised millions of dollars, none of them is working on a respiratory sensor like Sylvee, Artunduaga said. She sees an opportunity there for her Mountain View startup to provide its device to such companies for them to use with their own customers.

The device is set to be tested in feasibility trials sponsored by the National Institutes of Health at Mountain View's El Camino Hospital and at the Pulmonary, Critical Care & Sleep Disorders Institute of South Florida. The tests will compare the data generated by Sylvee with that of traditional lung function machines when used with not just COPD patients but also those suffering from asthma and Covid-19.

The company has some new resources to help see it through the development and production of Sylvee. Earlier this month, it announced it's raised $2.8 million in funding. The tally included $1.8 million in grants from the National Science Foundation, the NIH, and the NIH's Small Business Innovation Research program.

The total also included $1 million in pre-seed funding in a round led by Zentynel Frontier Investments, the largest biotechnology fund in South America. VentureWell, ImpactAssets, angel investors, Artunduaga's family and friends, and doctors in her network also participated.

Artunduaga stands out in Silicon Valley, because she's Latina. The venture industry apportions a small fraction of its investments to female-founded startups, much less to those founded by Latinas. Indeed, last year, startups founded by Latinx people — male or female — only received 2.1% of total venture funding, according to Crunchbase.

Raising funding for Respira has been challenging, Artunduaga said. But things have been improving lately, she said. The company's NIH grants have helped give Respira credibility with investors. And the Covid-19 pandemic has put a spotlight on the importance of respiratory health.

"Now I'm getting VCs emailing me and asking for those meetings," she said. "I'm so passionate about this, I'll do anything to make it happen."