CHF 40,000 for startups revolutionizing G protein coupled receptors screening, developing tracers for early detection of neurological diseases, and precision diagnostics for cancer treatment
21.01.2021
ArcoScreen, Nemosia, and Parithera win Venture Kick's second stage of financial and entrepreneurial support. Their projects help doctors save time by drastically reducing the assay time in GPCR screening from hours to minutes, pharma companies and hospitals to detect and combat neurological diseases, and cancer centers be more efficient in prolonging their patient's lives.
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 ArcoScreen: from left to right, Engineer R&D Lucas Yerly; CEO and co-founder Margaux Duchamp; and CTO and co-founder Dr. Thamani Dahoun
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 Nemosia: CEO Awa F. Diagne, Director of Clinical Development Dr. Hazem Farouk, Director of R&D Dr. Haider Ahmed and, IT & Analytics Daniel Tay
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 and Dr. Weida Chen (CTO1.jpg) Parithera: Dr. Antoine Herzog (CEO) and Dr. Weida Chen (CTO)
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ArcoScreen: revolutionizing G protein coupled receptors screening
G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) are the most successful drug targets to treat diseases like cancer, Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s. Current assays to find new drugs are limited. ArcoScreen's team based at EPFL- Margaux Duchamp, CEO, co-founder and PhD in bio engineering with emphasis on micro technologies, Thamani Dahoun, CTO, co-founder, PhD in chemistry with a specialization in GPCR, Lucas Yerly, R&D engineer and Philippe Renaud as advisor - aims at revolutionizing GPCR drug screening with a new assay embedded in a microfluidic chip. Their solution SynScreen revolutionizes GPCR screening by drastically reducing the assay time from hours to minutes by combining 4 tests in a unique and simple assay. They target Pharma companies that are interested in uncovering novel applications for already existing drugs. They have currently a functional microfluidic device and have validated their novel approach against current state of the art methods. Their product SynScreen qualifies as a pharmaceutical laboratory equipment and is a GPCR drug discovery tool. The worldwide market for such tools is estimated to reach 1.76B$ in revenue by 2022 (CAGR 3.6%).
Venture Kick financing will enable the team to further work on theri business model as well as the validation of their microfluidic device with novel GPCR screening method, to achieve a proof of concept of a compound screening in a specific therapeutic area like diabetes and Alzheimer's, and to develop a prototype for the SynScreen instrument. arcoscreen.ch
Nemosia: Tracers that can provide early detection of various neurological diseases
Neurological degeneration severely impacts quality of life and hence represents one of this century's greatest medical challenges. Billions of dollars have been invested over the last two decades and yet, still no cure.
Nemosia is an ETH Zurich spin-off project developing tracers for early diagnostics of neurodegenerative diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis and Alzheimer’s. They use PET imaging, a non-invasive technique, to visualize the receptors inside the brain. The team, composed of CEO Awa Diagne, Director of Clinical Development Dr. Hazem Ahmed, Director of R&D Dr. Ahmed Haider and Advisor Prof. Simon Ametamey. Their target customers are first Pharma companies which they can support from day #1 in their drug development and preclinical studies. Then, after completion of clinical development phase 2, they will add patient recruitment and therapy monitoring to their offering and extend their customers base to Hospitals. Finally, after FDA approval, their tracers will empower everyone to take early measures to combat the diseases.
Proof of Concept is completed with preclinical studies on primates, the team is now in preliminary clinical trials Phase 1.
Besides, Nemosia also aims to raise public awareness of neurological disorders and promote a culture where it is seen as normal and safe to do regular brain check-ups even if there are no visible symptoms of neurological disorder.
The Venture Kick fund will be used to strengthen their patent position and further support their clinical development. nemosia.com
Parithera: Introducing clinical utility of circulating tumor cells liquid biopsy
Precision medicine is revolutionising cancer care. To unlock its full potential, it requires precision diagnostic. Parithera, led by Dr. Antoine Herzog (CEO) and Dr. Weida Chen (CTO), both originally from ETH Zurich and now located at EPFL, provides a minimally invasive, inexpensive and highly actionable cancer diagnosis platform to guide treatment decisions of clinicians. With a new generation of magnetic nanoparticles in conjunction with an automated device, Parithera is able to isolate circulating tumor cells (CTCs) at higher numbers and purities than current CTC liquid biopsy solutions. Parithera aims at being the first company to introduce clinical utility of CTC liquid biopsy by conforming to clinical needs (automation, high sample throughput and integration into existing clinical workflows).
They plan to use Venture Kick fund to establish their online presence and invest in their proof-of-concept device. parithera.com