
Venture Leaders 2016
As novelty in 2016, not only one, but two “Swiss startup teams” have been selected for the US journey as part of the program venture leaders, co-organized by venturelab and swissnex Boston and its New York Outpost. The venture leaders in Life Sciences and the venture leaders in Technology teams, composed of 10 high potential startups each, will fly to Boston and New York this summer for a “business boosting” week which will enable them to accelerate their development on the US market, meet top investors and experts. Selected after a highly competitive process, both teams offer an amazing display of startups to watch for future success.
Venture Leaders Life Sciences (Boston, June 12-18)
Andrea Maesani, Intento | ![]() | A solution for the rehabilitation of severely paralyzed stroke patients, helping them to perform and recover upper limbs movements again. | (medtech), EPF Lausanne |
Marcel Ottiger, Amphasys AG | ![]() | A patented new technology enabling label-free, non-destructive and mobile analysis of any kind of single cells (by microfluidic impedance flow cytometry), in a similar way as a scanner at the airport. For example, analysis of pollen viability is a crucial step in the seed production because yield and quality of seed and the growing plant strongly correlate with pollen quality. Other examples are analysis of milk (somatic cells), fermentation processes (yeast, bacteria) or sperms (viability and quantity). | (biotech), Technopark Lucerne |
Martin Ostermaier, InterAx Biotech | ![]() | InterAx Biotech helps pharmaceutical companies to develop new and better drugs. Their unique combination of computational methods and innovative biological products allows for fast and comprehensive characterization of potential new drugs. Costly clinical trials can then be performed with reduced risks. | (biotech) ETH Zurich |
Natali Pennesse, Cellphmed | A method to verify the identity and quality of human cells, which will open doors for the advancement of personalized medicine. | (medtech), EPF Lausanne | |
Philipp Knechtle, Selmod | ![]() | Development of innovative small molecule therapies for the treatment of life-threatening invasive fungal infections, which represent around 2 million new cases every year worldwide. | (biotech), Uni Basel |
Reto Naef, Topadur Pharma | ![]() | Specialized drugs for the treatment of severe wound healing, which enables a higher life’s quality for patients. | (biotech), Schlieren |
Sabrina Badir, pregnolia | ![]() | A diagnostic tool that measures the cervical stiffness in pregnant women, allowing to reliably identify women at risk of preterm birth, thus solving the long-standing problem of preterm birth risk assessment and management in pregnancy. | (medtech), ETH Zurich |
Sandeep Rahunathan, PB&B SA | ![]() | A new generation of fillers and anti-aging medicine for plastic surgeons and dermatologists. The patented technology stimulates a patient’s soft tissues to naturally gain volume with locally delivered lipids. | (biotech), Uni Genève |
Sylke Hoehnel, SUNbioscience | ![]() | Standardized cultures of stem cell-derived organoids, which are self-organizing 3D miniature tissues with organ-mimicking functions. The technology opens the door to personalized medicine, which means more effective treatments and fewer side effects than the current “one drug fits all” principle. | (biotech), EPF Lausanne |
Tomas de Wouters, PharmaBiome | ![]() | Antibiotic resistances make intestinal infections (i.e. C. difficile infection) life-threatening. Fecal microbiota transplant, the transplant of feces from a healthy donor to the infected patient, is currently the only lifesaving but experimental therapy with success rates of over 90%. PharmaBiome develops a scalable, controllable and efficient alternative to the use of fecal material to make it the treatment of choice for intestinal infections. | biotech), ETH Zurich |
Venture Leaders Tech (New York City, June 5-11)
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