iNANO researchers honored with business acceleration award
The discovery of a unique technology to detect small molecules in blood, and the potential of being able to secure a more correct and safe treatment of certain patients, led iNANO researchers to establish the startup company, MedicQuant. The team behind the company has just won the Bioinnovation Institute (BII) Acceleration Award.
The team behind the startup, MedicQuant, consists of Line Debois Frejlev Nielsen, Malthe Hansen-Bruhn, who have founded the medtech company with Professor Kurt Gothelf. Gothelf serves as Scientific Advisor and has more than 20 years of experience within assay development, bioconjugation and chemistry. Line and Malthe both hold a PhD in nanoscience from Aarhus University (AU), and they conducted their PhD project in the research group, Gothelf Lab, at Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center (iNANO) and Department of Chemistry, AU.
"... what good is science if it stays at the university?"
More than 500,000 people in Denmark are taking anticoagulant medicines, including Direct Oral Anticoagulants (DOACs). In a trauma situation, it is critical to be able to measure the level or effect of anticoagulants to give the correct and safe treatment. However, due to the lack of a rapid and local test for DOACs, the clinicians at local hospitals perform medical decisions on an insufficient basis.1
Since 2014 the founders of MedicQuant have been working on a technology that is based on the rapid detection of small molecules, to help health care personnel provide answers in critical situations. The test, MedicQuant is working on may provide the level of DOACs from whole blood within 10 minutes, with no handling steps and at the point of care. With the MedicQuant device clinicians at local hospitals are expected to be able to make a decision based on data before treating patients.1
A large diagnostic company has shown interest in the project and "for us, it was a big milestone and very motivating because what good is science if it stays at the university?", as MedicQuant says to Bioinnovation Institute.1
Successful business pitch
In September, they joined the Business Acceleration Academy at the Novo Nordisk Foundation initiative, Bioinnovation Institute (BII), along with seven other startups. The focus was on the commercial side of their research and in the past 11 weeks, they have worked hard to develop an initial business plan and the entrepreneurial skills to execute on it.
At the end of the Business Acceleration Academy programme MedicQuant was honored with the BII Acceleration Award as the most accelerated startup. See MedicQuants winning pitch presentation at Bioinnovation Institute here.
1Read the interview with Line and Malthe by Bioinnovation Institute.
Contact:
Line Debois Frejlev Nielsen, PhD
Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center (iNANO) and Department of Chemistry
Aarhus University
Email: debois@inano.au.dk
Malthe Hansen-Bruhn, PhD
Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center (iNANO) and Department of Chemistry
Aarhus University
Email: mhb@inano.au.dk