The four finalists of the LIFE Science Innovation Award have been announced. On Tuesday, September 27, 2022, Sulfateq, Detact Diagnostics, ICON and TRACER will pitch their submitted innovations during the LIFE Science Conference. The board has selected the four finalists from more than twenty applications and nominations. The LIFE Science Conference and Innovation Award are made possible by NV NOM, gemeente Groningen, Campus Groningen and the LIFE Cooperative.
Een mooie mix
The Innovation Award will be awarded to the innovation with the most impact in the field of Life Sciences & Health. The prize of the award is a check for €5.000 euros. LIFE Cooperative chairman Ton Vries is very satisfied with the submissions: “We have received submissions from all kinds of disciplines within the Life Sciences & Health sector. That also results in an interesting mix of the four companies and innovations that are going to the finals.” During the finale on September 27, the jury will be represented by, among others, people from the municipality of Groningen, NOM and Pharma Connect Capital. You can register for the event until September 1st, 2022 via www.lifecooperative.nl
About the finalists
The innovations from Detact Diagnostics, TRACER, ICON and Sulfateq have been selected to pitch.
Sulfateq
Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is a devastating progressive disorder that results in memory loss and other cognitive impairments. Despite several decades of drug development there is still no effective drug on the market able to reduce the course of AD. But what if nature can offer us a solution to combat Alzheimer’s Disease? Winter sleep (hibernation) offers hibernating species the possibility to survive harsh environmental conditions, such as periods of low food availability or periods of extreme low temperatures. Interestingly, hibernators possess protective mechanisms that allows them to withstand or repair organ damage that occurred during hibernation, whereas non-hibernators do not possess such protective mechanisms. Inspired by hibernation Sulfateq B.V. has developed a library of compounds of which one shows huge potential as new treatment against AD. It led to the filing of a new Alzheimer patent in 2021 and an accelerated preclinical development, in collaboration with GEN İlaç, a leading speciality pharmaceutical company in Turkey, to launch a First In Human trial soon.
Detact Diagnostics
Start-up Detact Diagnostics focuses on the development of the VIPER® technology (Visualization by Infrared PEptide Reaction), with which bacteria and viral infections can be detected quickly and easily. This technology is used for various applications including the RenoTact and SynoTact tests. Dialysis is a treatment for patients with kidney failure. By means of hemodialysis in the hospital or peritoneal dialysis at home, waste products are filtered from the blood. RenoTact with VIPER® technology enables patients to test their dialysis fluid easily and quickly at home. In this way, an infection of the peritoneum (peritonitis) can be detected at an early stage.
TRACER
So-called "fast in-human" studies predict the safety, optimal dosage and effectiveness of a new drug in humans. TRACER uses this technique to shift the go/no-go decision for further drug development to an early stage of the drug development process. This means that testing is carried out more quickly on the target group of the medicines, namely the patient, instead of on animals. Bringing this forward avoids investing time, money and exposure of (healthy) subjects to ineffective drugs. In 2021, TRACER conducted a successful "fast in-human" study with Akston's COVID-19 candidate vaccine. As a result, setting up the research, submitting and conducting the vaccine study took 6 months instead of 12 months.
ICON
Enzymes are biological motors and are essential for many (bio)chemical reactions inside and outside the cell. Measuring enzyme activity is a widely used tool in biomedical research. For many diseases, it is important to measure the activity rather than the concentration of specific enzymes to understand the disease status or effect of a drug. Traditionally, these tests are performed using methods based on a color reaction. These measurements are relatively cheap, but do not always provide selective results, which can make the results less reliable. In some types of clinical studies, this reliability is of enormous importance. At the request of a pharmaceutical company, ICON has set up a method and fully validated it according to the applicable requirements of the authorities. Thousands of samples were subsequently measured using this new method. A similar setup can be chosen for the analysis of other enzymes. The industry's interest in this is already apparent from new applications.
