CTI US market camps: SamanTree validates first product with Harvard Medical School

This past July, SamanTree Technologies AG’s CEO, Davor Kosanic, had the opportunity to participate in the CTI US Market Validation Camp. The Camp is organized by CTI, in partnership with swissnex outposts in the US (Boston, San Francisco and New York), which offers fact-finding missions (that last up to one month) for early stage startups within the CTI coaching process.

SamanTree Technologies AG is a digital microscopy company, and spin-off of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). SamanTree develops next-generation, digital tissue microscopy scanners, with the vision to enable intra-operative point‐of-care digital pathology for tumor surgery guidance.

During the first part of the Validation Camp, SamanTree validated the clinical utility of its first product in development (HistoScanner) with clinical experts from the Greater Boston Area, including experts from both the Harvard Medical School and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. This process is the first step towards the entering the US clinical market. Davor Kosanic, CEO of SamanTree, is planning a subsequent trip, this time to the Bay Area, later this year.

Today, cancer surgery relies primarily on the human eye for operation, a manner incapable of detecting cancer residues, or providing assurance that the tumor was completely removed during the ongoing procedure. SamanTree’s mission is to increase the chances of tumor-free survival for cancer patients, by improving the quality of tumor surgery. By enabling efficient intra-operative pathological examination, SamanTree aims to improve surgical resection accuracy, treatment decisions and overall OR workflow, while reducing re-operation rates and cutting the overall cost of procedures.