PRESENS PRECISION SENSING GMBH

Their core work

PreSens Precision Sensing GmbH develops and manufactures optical sensor systems for non-invasive measurement of oxygen, pH, and CO2 in biological and chemical environments. Their core product line covers fiber-optic and sensor spot technologies that enable real-time, at-line and on-line monitoring inside bioreactors, cell culture systems, and microfluidic devices without consuming sample or disturbing the process. In H2020 projects, they served as the sensing technology provider — integrating their measurement platforms into high-throughput biopharmaceutical workflows and advanced 3D cell culture models including organoids and organ-on-chip systems. They translate sensor hardware into research-grade analytical instruments that other consortium partners rely on for data quality.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their first H2020 project (iConsensus, from 2018), PreSens focused squarely on industrial bioprocess analytics — providing at-line and on-line sensing for high-throughput bioreactor systems producing drug proteins, a well-established application of their core sensor technology. By their second project (SCREENED, from 2019), the context had shifted substantially toward next-generation biological models: 3D cell culture, organoids, decellularized extracellular matrix, and organ-on-chip platforms used for toxicology screening. This signals a deliberate move from monitoring mature bioprocesses to enabling the measurement infrastructure required by more complex, tissue-mimetic research systems.

PreSens is moving from established biopharmaceutical manufacturing applications toward the frontier of microphysiological systems — organ-on-chip, bioprinting, and organoid platforms — where reliable non-invasive sensing is still an unsolved instrumentation challenge.

How they like to work

PreSens participates in consortia exclusively as a specialist partner, never as coordinator, suggesting they engage where their sensor hardware is a defined, needed component rather than seeking to lead project management. Across just two projects they have accumulated 28 unique partners in 9 countries, indicating they join large multi-partner RIA consortia rather than small focused teams. This pattern is consistent with a technology supplier whose product slots into a broader research platform built by academic and clinical partners.

Despite only two H2020 projects, PreSens has built connections with 28 distinct consortium partners across 9 European countries, reflecting the large, multi-institutional character of the RIA projects they join. Their network is research-lab heavy — university groups, biotech SMEs, and clinical partners — rather than industrial.

What sets them apart

PreSens occupies a narrow but hard-to-replace niche: they provide optical sensor systems that work non-invasively inside biological systems — bioreactors, organoids, microfluidic chips — where conventional electrochemical probes are too large, too invasive, or too slow. Few companies at SME scale combine manufacturing of the sensor hardware with the application knowledge to integrate it into cutting-edge biological research platforms. For consortium builders, this means PreSens brings both a physical product and the scientific expertise to make it work in novel experimental contexts.

Highlights from their portfolio

• SCREENED
  This project is thematically ambitious — building a multistage thyroid model using organoids, bioprinting, and decellularized matrix to screen endocrine disruptors, placing PreSens at the intersection of regulatory toxicology and next-generation tissue engineering.
• iConsensus
  Focused on integrating control and sensing into high-throughput biopharmaceutical cultivation, directly linking PreSens sensor technology to drug manufacturing process development — a commercially significant application domain.