Rafaela Andrade has received the Outstanding Entrepreneur award at the Mitacs Entrepreneur Awards, which took place in Waterloo, Ont., earlier this month.

The CEO and Co-Founder of Halifax medtech company Myomar Molecular received the national award presented to former participants in Mitacs programs. Mitacs is a national association that works with post-secondary institutions to provide researchers to companies and organizations to help them solve problems.

“It was an incredible honour to receive the award and being recognized nationally for the work we are doing,” said Andrade in an email. “In addition, the award will contribute to our patent filing in the next two weeks.”

Myomar has developed the world’s first urine strip test for measuring muscle loss. The goal is to monitor for indicators of muscle loss early on so precautions can be taken. Normally, muscle loss is only monitored after neuromuscular diseases such as ALS or muscular dystrophy are diagnosed or signs of muscle loss appear, using expensive medical imaging systems like an MRI or CT scan.

Myomar Molecular’s test is designed for the general population and works like a simple home pregnancy test, allowing users to get their results by snapping a picture of the completed test strip on their phone.

Andrade told Entrevestor earlier this year the company was preparing to file a patent application and was also considering a possible crowdfunding campaign to raise capital later this year.

She said on Tuesday that Myomar Molecular is looking for beta-users and anyone interested can register here.

The company, which graduated from the Emera IdeaHUB and Creative Destruction Lab Atlantic, was accepted into Quebec’s MEDTEQ+ accelerator recently.

Andrade, a former post-doctoral researcher at Dalhousie University’s Department of Biomedical Engineering, was one of five Mitacs veterans recognized at the awards.

“Each of this year’s five Mitacs Entrepreneur Award winners are equipped with the vision, resilience, and drive to transform their sectors,” said Mitacs Chief of Business Development Tash Ismail in a statement.