Durham-based diagnostics developer SenGenix Inc. has raised just over a million dollars of a $1.5 million debt offering, according to a regulatory filing. The company is developing point-of-care diagnostic tests based on Duke University Medical Center technology.

The company’s web site says it will commercialize protein-engineering technologies developed at the center to create a product platform that will be designed to perform a menu of tests at the point-of-care.

The company uses state-of-the-art bioinformatics and proprietary automation assisted protein engineering techniques to develop specific molecular sensors for each analysis. The company web site explains:

“At the core of this technology are engineered proteins into which a fluorescent molecule has been integrated. Fluorescently responsive sensors (FRSs) can be printed onto a test strip and report on the presence and level of a clinical analyte.”

The company says its technology has a number of advantages over current methods, including lower cost, operational simplicity, accuracy and speed (results can be read in seconds, letting doctors make rapid decisions at the point of care.)

The company previously raised more than $1.9 million in a July 2014 debt offering and $450,000 in 2013, also debt.

CEO Dr. Richard S. Surwit is professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and former vice chair of research in the department of psychiatry at Duke University. He holds six patents and was founder and chair of ZyCare Inc., which licensed a major product to Roche Diagnostics in 1999 and was acquired by Alere Inc. that year.

The company reported the debt raise from seven investors in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Here’s the filing: http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1586429/000162656915000002/xslFormDX01/primary_doc.xml