Several start-ups announce CTI projects

Start-ups develop an important share of innovative products in Switzerland. Therefore it’s no wonder that young companies obtain CTI grants. Several start-ups reported the start of CTI projects in the last days.

Artanim, a foundation founded 2011 in Geneva, obtained a CTI project entitled MyHip: Patient-Specific Pre-operative Planning and Intra-operative Surgical Guidance for Total Hip Arthroplasty in the accompanying measures of the CTI against the strong franc. Artanim in collaboration with research and industrial partners will work together on this innovative project to improve the preoperative planning of total hip arthroplasty and its intra-operative execution. MyHip aims at creating a complete solution for the planning and execution of total hip arthroplasty (THA). The project will start beginning of February 2012 for a period of 18 months.

NeMoDevices got a grant for the project "A new multi-parameter neuromonitoring system to save patients` lives in stroke, brain injury, cardiac arrest and sleep apnoea" that the company submitted together with ETH Zurich and two industrial partners. The project started January 2012 and will last for 18 Month. NeMoDevices AG was founded in 2007 as a spin-off company from the University and ETH Zurich. It is dedicated to optimizing diagnosis and treatment of patients with stroke and brain injuries in order to save and improve life and life quality.

CTI granted to Stemergie support for a project with the title "design, optimization and validation of compounds against cancer-initiating cells". This project started in November 2011 and supports the research carried out at the ETH Zurich with one of the world-leading chemistry groups (Prof. Erick M. Carreira, PhD and Thomas C. Fessard, PhD) as well as at the Geneva University Hospital (Laboratory of Ivan Radovanovic, MD PhD). CTI finances this research with an amount of over CHF 600'000 during 18 months. Stemergie, a young company from Geneva, develops treatments and diagnostics for cancers by targeting cancer-initiating cells (CIC), the roots of cancer.

Not all companies are publishing information about their CTI projects due to the business potential of innovative products developed in those projects. Some start-ups like DSwiss or C-CIT just announce the start of a CTI project others do not publish any information at all. The five mentioned companies in this article are therefore just the tip of the iceberg.