Two Polish firms (from Lublin and Wrocław) took first place at the European’s Commission’s 2020 Innovation Radar. The finals took place online on September, 24 during the European Commission R&I Days event.
Lublin-based SDS Optic won the ‘Women-Led Innovation’ category for their innovations in endoscopic and cancer fighting technologies. WHO informs that cancer is one of the leading cause of death worldwide with about 14 million new cases reported per year. Breast cancer is the most common type in women and is considered the second cancer overall. A number of patients can be cured with available treatments, especially using drugs directed to the molecular target characteristic for patients’ tumor. The therapeutic success depends on reliable and quick diagnosis that leads the way for the most effective therapies saving life.
The company’s vision is to develop innovative cancer diagnostics and monitoring technologies that will help increase cancer survival by 30% by 2030. The OmniProbe allows for 100 percent confirmed diagnosis without the need for a biopsy. Immediate result will allow quickly move on to the most appropriate targeted therapy. SDS Optic’s solution mergers fibre optics, molecular biology, chemistry, biomedical engineering into a single needle that not only gives instantaneous information but allows for delivery of medicine directly to the tumour. SDS Optic was co-founded by Dr Magdalena Staniszewska, who worked for Harvard University and by her husband Marcin Staniszewski, who previously did research for NASA.
The OmniProbe technology is created by an interdisciplinary team of scientist recruited from different fields, like biology, chemistry, optoelectronics, and engineering that come together to build on their experience toward development of the disruptive technology. They have been trained in the best world academic centers in US, such as Harvard Medical School, Vanderbilt University, NASA as well as polish institutions like Polish Academy of Sciences, Technical University of Warsaw.
