Sphingotec

14/10/2026

💡 “penKid adds value beyond serum creatinine in sepsis, enabling earlier and more granular risk stratification for renal deterioration and short-term mortality.”
That is the conclusion of new data presented at ESICM LIVES 2026. In a secondary analysis of the multicenter Next GeneSiS trial, researchers from University Hospital Essen and partners looked at 492 patients with sepsis or septic shock. They asked whether penKid (Proenkephalin A 119-159) together with serum creatinine improves renal risk assessment.
The take-aways:
🔹 penKid provides substantial added value beyond serum creatinine in predicting worsening renal function and poor outcome.
🔹 Patients with an isolated elevation of penKid, with serum creatinine still in the normal range, are easy to miss with creatinine alone. This group had the highest 28-day mortality, at 54.2%.

These findings from a contemporary, prospective multicenter cohort are consistent with the recent patient-level meta-analysis by (Arlt, B. et al.,2026) and support the incremental prognostic value of penKid in conjunction with serum creatinine for predicting worsening renal function and mortality in sepsis.
Poster presented by Jonas Gregorius from University Hospital Essen.
📍 “Clinical performance of Proenkephalin A 119-159 in conjunction with serum creatinine for renal risk assessment in patients with sepsis or septic shock - a secondary analysis of Next GeneSiS-Trial”

09/10/2026

Meet SphingoTec at ESICM LIVES 2026 in Lisbon!
SphingoTec joins the critical care community at ESICM LIVES 2026, October 10-14. Our CEO and Managing Director Deborah Bergmann, our Medical Affairs Director Martina Kalle-Brune and our Medical Science Liaison Manager Marlene Gotschalk will be on site and open for discussions on kidney function assessment in critically ill patients, the latest clinical evidence on penKid and future collaborations.
On Monday, October 12, we're looking forward to joining our partner Boditech Med's Expert Meeting, with insightful discussions on the latest innovation, the AFIAS sphingotest® penKid®.
There's more to look forward to: researchers from University Hospital Essen will present new penKid research in sepsis and septic shock, a secondary analysis of the Next GeneSiS trial, which we are proud to have contributed to. Details to follow!
Would you like to meet us in Lisbon? Send us a message and we'll find time to connect.
📍 Lisbon, Portugal | 📅 October 10-14, 2026

07/10/2026

Kidney health takes center stage in Leipzig this week.
SphingoTec is at the Kongress für Nephrologie (DGFN), October 8-11, 2026. Our CEO and Managing Director Deborah Bergmann and our Medical Affairs Director Martina Kalle Brune are looking forward to discussing advances in kidney function biomarkers with the nephrology community and laying the foundations for future collaborations.
If you're at DGFN, reach out and let's find a time to talk.
📍 Leipzig, Germany | 📅 October 8-11, 2026

06/10/2026

New Study Suggests Potential of penKid in Kidney Reserve Assessment

PenKid has been evaluated for the first time as a marker of kidney functional reserve (KFR): a new study in Physiological Reports found that its response spanned a much wider range than cystatin C and creatinine clearance after a protein stimulus. The study in 62 participants marks the first published evaluation of penKid for this use.
Read the press release here: https://www.sphingotec.eu/new-study-suggests-potential-of-penkid-in-kidney-reserve-assessment

17/09/2026

👋 Welcome to the team, Dr. Marlene Gottschalk!
We’re pleased to welcome Dr. Marlene Gottschalk as Medical Science Liaison Manager at SphingoTec.
Marlene joins us from translational research at the LIMES Institute, University of Bonn, where she worked at the interface of preclinical science, scientific communication, and cross functional stakeholder collaboration.
At SphingoTec, Marlene will connect with the scientific and clinical community to advance dialogue around organ function biomarkers in critical care—especially penKid for kidney function in conditions such as AKI, sepsis and acute heart failure.
Her focus: meaningful scientific exchange with clinicians and researchers, supporting evidence generation, and bringing real world insights back into our medical strategy.

16/09/2026

🔬 SphingoTec at DGAI 2026 – Kassel
Our Medical Affairs Director Martina Kalle-Brune and Medical Science Liaison Dr. Marlene Gottschalk will be at the DGAI Jahreskongress from 16–18 September 2026 in Kassel.
At SphingoTec, we look forward to discussions with the critical care community on the latest developments in kidney function and endothelial biomarkers—especially penKid and bio‑ADM— and their role in supporting diagnosis, risk assessment, and patient monitoring in acute care settings including sepsis, acute heart failure and acute kidney injury (AKI).
If you’re attending DGAI, feel free to reach out to arrange a meeting during the congress.

27/08/2026

We are excited to announce the publication of new real-world data on proenkephalin A 119–159 (penKid) in critically ill patients. The data, published in Annals of Intensive Care, add to the growing body of evidence supporting penKid as a functional biomarker for kidney function and help inform clinical decision-making in AKI and KRT.
✅ In a prospective, real-world study of 1,436 critically ill ICU patients, penKid provided clinically relevant information across AKI severity and during kidney replacement therapy (KRT).
✅ PenKid addressed a key unmet need in KRT management by identifying, with greater precision than standard biomarkers, patients at high risk of KRT liberation failure – helping to avoid stopping therapy too early.
✅ The findings support a future role for penKid in helping to standardize one of the few intensive care processes where the need for better decision support is widely acknowledged and current tools remain insufficient.

👉Read more in the press release: https://www.sphingotec.eu/new-real-world-data-show-penkid-adding-decision-support-for-kidney-replacement-therapy-in-critical-care
👉 Read the full publication: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2110582026001482

19/08/2026

Over the coming months, SphingoTec will be present at a series of leading conferences in diagnostics and critical care medicine.

Conference schedule:
- DGAI (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Anästhesiologie und Intensivmedizin), September 16–18, 2026, Kassel, Germany
- Kongress für Nephrologie 2026 (DGFN), October 8–11, 2026, Leipzig, Germany
- ESICM Lives, October 10–14, 2026, Lisbon, Portugal – SphingoTec will co-host a Scientific Symposium with partner Boditech on innovations in sepsis diagnostics; new clinical data on penKid in a multicenter sepsis study will be presented as a poster.
- ASN Kidney Week 2026, October 22–25, 2026, Denver, CO, USA – penKid takes center stage in the poster sessions with the abstract “Proenkephalin Predicts Severe AKI in High-Risk Patients”.
- Medica, November 16–19, 2026, Düsseldorf, Germany – Focus on expanding SphingoTec’s international industry network and advancing partnering opportunities for its biomarker portfolio.
- DIVI (Deutsche Interdisziplinäre Vereinigung für Intensiv- und Notfallmedizin), December 2–4, 2026, Hamburg, Germany

22/07/2026

A patient-level meta-analysis published in Critical Care examined whether proenkephalin A 119–159 (penKid) adds predictive value beyond serum creatinine (sCr) in sepsis and septic shock.
Pooling individual data from 2,203 patients across four independent studies, the analysis found:
✅ penKid was independently associated with worsening renal function (WRF) and 28-day mortality, regardless of sCr levels.
✅ Among patients with normal sCr at admission, those with elevated penKid showed markedly higher rates of WRF (27.1% vs. 11.1%) and 28-day mortality (38.6% vs. 15.3%) than patients with normal penKid.
✅ Combining penKid with sCr improved risk stratification beyond either marker alone.
Interested in implementing penKid in your clinical practice?
Contact your local distributor to learn how to access the AFIAS sphingotest® penKid®, an aid in the diagnosis of AKI in adult patients with sepsis or septic shock.

📄 Study: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13054-026-05947-5
🛒 AFIAS sphingotest® penKid®: https://www.boditech.co.kr/en/product/reagents/id/1128

Monitoring kidney function in real-time to assess acute kidney injury (AKI)

16/07/2026

Accurately tracking graft function in the early days after kidney transplantation is critical for patient management — yet serum creatinine (SCr), the current standard, has known limitations in this window.
A study published in Transplant International, led by Heidelberg University Hospital which was validatedin an independent cohort from the Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney, evaluated proenkephalin A 119–159 (penKid) as a biomarker for tracking graft function trajectories in 159 kidney transplant recipients.
Key findings:
✅ On Day 1 post-transplant, penKid outperformed SCr in detecting delayed graft function (DGF): AUROC penKid 0.87 vs. SCr 0.56.
✅ penKid distinguished slow graft function from DGF up to 8 days earlier than current methods.
✅ Unlike SCr, penKid levels remain unaffected by kidney replacement therapy (KRT).
✅ Multivariate analysis confirmed penKid as the strongest independent predictor of short-term graft function and 30-day outcomes.
Translational and academic research groups investigating penKid can order the ELISA sphingotest® penKid® directly through our shop.
📄 Benning L, et al. Transpl Int. 2025;38:14366. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40475974/

🛒 ELISA sphingotest® penKid®: https://www.sphingotec.eu/product/ELISA-sphingotest-penKid
For Research Use Only.

Accurate assessment of graft function trajectories after kidney transplantation is essential for optimizing patient management. Slow graft function (SGF) and delayed graft function (DGF) are associated with impaired recovery, yet current diagnostic tools lack granularity for timely risk stratificati...