Breathe Well-being scores $6M in pre-Series B funding

Diabetes care startup Breathe Well-being from India has raised $6 million (Rs 500 million) in a pre-Series B round led by 3One4 Capital, Accel and General Catalyst. 

Launched in 2020, the company focuses on behavioural and lifestyle changes to reduce and reverse the risk of Type 2 diabetes. It offers a clinically-proven digital programme that is personalised for each user and that also comes with coaching support and gamified content. It is said to be clinically proven to help bring down HbA1c, lose weight, and lessen patients' medication dependability.

According to the company, it will use its fresh funds to expand its core team, strengthen its health coaching academy, scale its platform and enhance user experience.

New health supplement app Pillwork goes live

A new mobile app in South Korea helps users in purchasing health supplements.

Now available on both iOS and Android devices, the Pillwork app provides reliable information on about 20,000 health supplements on its platform. It features blogs, articles, and encyclopedias and allows users to share their opinion on a product, which others can check and review. 

The app categorises products for easy search, as well as identifies the risk of taking a certain product on a specific disease. 

Pillwork also has experts on board who can offer advice to users, as well as provides AI-generated curated information that users may need. Moreover, it can also scan off-the-shelf pill bottles and provide instant information on them. 

Artificial eye lens in South Korea can diagnose Alzheimer's

The Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM) has come up with an intraocular eye lens that can diagnose Alzheimer's disease at an early stage.

Developed in partnership with the Yonsei University's Yongin Severance Hospital and Gangnam Severance Hospital, the implantable artificial lens is made with a bioresponsive hydrogel which shows a Moiré pattern as it reacts to a target Alzheimer's biomarker. 

Its pattern detection does not require the use of electrochemical or fluorescent labels that are commonly used in other biosensors, nor it needs external power or light sources. 

The study, which is supported by the Nano Material Technology Development Project of the South Korean Ministry of Science and ICT, was published in the biomaterials journal Bioactive Materials.