Kompass Diagnostics today announced that it has entered into an exclusive license agreement with the University of Chicago, securing worldwide commercialization rights to foundational intellectual property underlying the company’s Electrical Transduction Assay (ETA™) platform. The agreement represents a major milestone in the company’s mission to transform how biological information is measured, digitized, and delivered across healthcare.

The licensed technology originated from collaborative research conducted at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where Kompass co-founders Dr. Hyouarm Joung and Dr. Hyun-June Jang developed a new biological-to-electrical signal transduction architecture capable of converting biochemical events directly into semiconductor-compatible electrical signals.  

Kompass Diagnostics is advancing this technology into a scalable diagnostic platform designed to enable rapid, laboratory-quality testing across chemistry, immunoassay, and molecular diagnostics in decentralized healthcare settings.

“Securing this exclusive license establishes the intellectual property foundation for our long-term platform strategy,” said Hyouarm Joung, Chief Technology Officer and Co-founder of Kompass Diagnostics. “Our vision extends beyond developing individual diagnostic products. We believe the current healthcare shift towards the home calls for a fundamentally new sensing architecture that allows lab-quality biomarker detection in more diverse healthcare settings.”

Unlike conventional diagnostic systems that rely on complex optical instrumentation and centralized laboratory infrastructure, ETA is designed around semiconductor-native electrical sensing. The platform seeks to simplify diagnostic workflows while enabling highly sensitive quantitative measurements in compact, cost-effective devices suitable for physician offices, pharmacies, satellite clinics, and eventually the home.  

Kompass’s first application is a rapid multi-hormone testing platform for fertility care. The system is designed to provide quantitative hormone measurements from a finger-prick blood sample within approximately ten minutes, supporting time-sensitive clinical decisions during in vitro fertilization (IVF) and egg freezing treatment.

The company believes reducing dependence on centralized laboratory infrastructure can help fertility providers expand access to care while improving operational efficiency and lowering costs.

The exclusive license further strengthens Kompass Diagnostics’ growing commercialization momentum. Since its founding, the company has raised approximately $2.7 million in financing and secured support through multiple competitive innovation programs, including the National Science Foundation (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, the NIH Point-of-Care Technology Research Network (POCTRN) Innovation Award, and Korea’s TIPS deep technology commercialization program.