Startups developing a computer vision guided robotic endoscope, upcycled plant-based protein, software-based solutions for the dental industry, and a personalized wound therapy each win CHF 10,000

Tracheal intubation [TI] is the medical process in which the clinician inserts an elastic tube into the patient's windpipe to ensure the lungs' ventilation. It is the 3rd most frequent clinical process performed more than 50M times annually. It may seem like an easy procedure, but nature designed our windpipe so that no solid body can enter our respiratory system. In the clinical setting, 5% get declared as difficult intubations; in the Emergency Medical Services [EMS] sector, even up to 13%. Those can lead to asphyxiation and result in brain damage or death. Successful intubation requires three key elements: Visual Access to the tracheal opening, dexterity to maneuver the tube, and experience to make the right decisions. aiEndoscopic is a spin-off of the three prominent universities of Zurich: ETH Zurich, Universität Zürich, and UniversitätsSpital Zürich. Its team – composed of Dave Gage, UZH Entrepreneur Fellow, Philippe Ganz, ETH graduate, and Prof. Dr. Peter Biro, Head Anesthesiologist USZ – is working to tackle these problems, bringing intelligent medical devices such as REALITI to the market. REALITI is the first tool that combines all three key elements in one single device. It is a computer vision guided robotic endoscope that detects and deflects the tip towards the tracheal entrance. REALITI will revolutionize anesthesiology as the first device supporting the often-neglected 3rd key element: experience, making this heavily skill-based task easier and safer. Peter Biro came up with the project, asking: "In the age of self-driving cars, why is there no self-driving intubation stylet?". The device is for EMS, where the person needs to intubate infrequently and in stressful situations. Also, REALITI can optimize the hospital workflow, widening the anesthesia bottleneck. The Venture Kick helps the company to improve its marketing and to cover early IP expenses. aiendoscopic.com

Bertify: Upcycling and optimizing plant-based proteins

3.5 billion people worldwide suffer from oral caries and the trend is rising. In the DACH region (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) alone, 41% of the population lives with undetected, untreated caries. This leads to an annual loss of productivity of 15 billion euros due to caries-related toothache in DACH. Nostic Solutions AG develops software-based solutions for the dental industry, which automates the visual diagnostics of imaging procedures and thereby improves the quality of therapy decisions by professionals. The team is  cooperatiing with the institute of  Data Science Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz (FHNW) and composed of CEO Tobias Minder, Head of Sales & Labeling Lisa Kropf, Scientific Supervisory Adrian Lussi, and, Jonas Lussi, PhD. cand. EHTZ Robotics & Intelligent Systems, developing Machine Learning Algorithms. Nostic Solutions develops software (SaaS) that compares radiological image data based on neural networks with reference data in the background and extracts measurable disease characteristics. This enables the dentist to recognize specific disease patterns much earlier, initiate appropriate therapies at an early stage and monitor their success over the course of the disease. In Europe, the market size is evaluated with 350'000 practicing dentists and 258'000 dentists with own dental practices. 2.32 Million BiteWing X-rays are taken every day. This leads to an addressable market of 500 Mio. CHF / year. The Venture Kick funds will be first used to improve the performance of their existing prototype through additional data input and segmentation on pixel level to get the best possible results for dentists. In a second phase, it will help host Nostic's network in secure cloud environment to test the end-to-end connection with their sales partner. This working end-to-end process is a prerequisite to be able to execute a clinical usability test of their Software with the pilot practices in Switzerland.
nostic.ch

TrophiGraft: personalized wound therapy
Chronic wounds affect > 1% of the worldwide population. About 20% of patients fails the first-line therapy and eat up the 70% of the wound-dedicated healthcare budget. The unmet need relies in the development of an effective therapy able to reduce the high costs associated with these patients. TrophiGraft's founders Nicolò Brembilla and O Preynat-Seave propose a solution based on the use of Adipose-derived Stem Cells (ASCs). These cells have a proven healing potential. Their innovation will be the first personalised, regenerative, single-application treatment allowing a wound to heal faster thanks to stem cells. Treatment simplicity and superior efficacy could make it an economically attractive solution. Their solution relies in the application of an innovative treatment based on stem cells. Their product, TrophiGraft, is a skin-like tissue engineered in the lab, containing adipose-derived stem cells (from the patient to treat) embedded in a matrix. The product constitues a reservoir of extracellular matrix/healing factors, including growth, angiogenesis, remodelling factors and cytokine/chemokines. Once applied, thanks to the "active" apport of multiple and variate healing factors, Trophigraft is potentially capable of unlocking and boosting an healing process which is otherwise "stacked". The advanced wound care market account to 2-2.5 m patients in US and 1.5-2m patients in EU, corresponding to 2.5-3.5bn and 2-3bn USD, respectively. The funds from Venturekick will be used to foster the translation of the research idea, still in the academia, to a real spin-off. The main milestones are the company incorporation by Q2 2021 and intermediate analysis of proof of concept study in animal model achieved by Q4-2020 with final results expected Q2-2021.