NEWS
UriSens: The Future of Health Monitoring Starts in Textiles – Grabher Group Joins as Project Partner
Grabher Group is proud to be part of the forward-looking research
FFG Project
UriSens. Together with leading partners from industry and science, we are working on an
intelligent textile sensor system that could become a true innovation in personalized health monitoring.
🔬The Goal of UriSens: Detect Inflammation Markers in Everyday Life
Acute and chronic diseases require early detection to enable optimal treatment. A key biomarker in medical diagnostics is C-reactive protein (CRP) – an indicator of inflammation that is currently detected through blood tests, which is invasive, uncomfortable, and not suitable for continuous CRP monitoring, especially for vulnerable groups such as infants or elderly individuals in care settings.
UriSens aims to change this:
By developing a non-invasive, textile-integrated sensor system capable of detecting CRP directly in urine – for example, in diapers, incontinence pads, or bed sheets.
🧵 Grabher Group’s Role in UriSens
As a leader in smart textiles, we bring our expertise in textile integration, conductive materials, and functional manufacturing to the UriSens project. Our shared goal is to develop a comfortable, everyday-ready, and functional textile sensor that integrates technology seamlessly into users' lives.
🧪 What UriSens Is Exploring
UriSens is going to explore fundamental design of a smart textile system starting from the sensing materials, textile sensor, electronics and software development that may detect CRP levels in urine using electrochemical methods. The project investigates:
- The synthesis of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) as artificial antibodies
- Their incorporation onto smart-textile
- The detection and signal processing of CRP in urine
- And the integration into wearable textile formats, such as underwear, diapers, or incontinence pads
The envisioned sensor system would generate an electrical signal proportional to CRP concentration via electrochemical analysis. The data could then be stored in cloud internally and transmitted wirelessly to a smartphone or external device, where it is analyzed and forwarded to a database or hospital information system (HIS).
🤝 Interdisciplinary Collaboration
The project is funded by the Austrian Ministry for Innovation, Mobility and Infrastructure through the FFG. Project partners include:
- V-TRION GmbH – Project coordination and smart-textile sensor
- Infineon Technologies – Embedded electronic system development
- University of Vienna – Sensing material development
- Medical University of Graz – Clinical validation
- SteadySense GmbH – Readout system development
- Grabher Group GmbH
– Sensor integration & industrial adaptation
This strong partnership combines research, technology, and industrial know-how to develop and demonstrate a working prototype up to pre-industrial scale.
🌍 Social Relevance & Outlook
UriSens is more than a technical project – it’s a contribution to improving quality of life, comfort, and healthcare delivery.
The technology is designed to be:
- Non-invasive and user-friendly
- Environmentally friendly and scalable
- Adaptable for the detection of other biomarkers related to various diseases
In the long term, UriSens could play a key role in personalized medicine and nursing support – with significant impacts on the daily lives of patients and caregivers.
We at Grabher Group look forward to three years of intensive research, collaboration, and technological innovation.