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Dan Høgdall (left) from POC Solutions, Anna Mee Allerslev, Mayor of Employment and Integration in Copenhagen, and René Nørgaard, Director Arla Foods HOCO - Global Categories and Operations. Photo: Chris Linde.

New method for earlier diagnosis of cancer is named best idea of the year

Health technology

Wednesday 03 Feb 16

by Christina Tækker

Contact

Winnie Edith Svendsen

Professor

DTU Bioengineering

+45 31 25 93 69
wisv@dtu.dk

Venture Cup Idea Competition

Venture Cup is a nationwide NGO aimed at finding the entrepreneurs of tomorrow and facilitating the creation of new businesses.

The Idea Competition focuses primarily on the idea’s originality, early stage development, and possibility of growth. Participation gives entrepreneurs access to advisers, workshops, an extensive network of investors, industry experts, and other entrepreneurs. All participants receive feedback from our qualified jury members.

The idea competition participants have the chance of winning DKK 25,000 in each of the five categories as well as the People’s Choice Award of DKK 25,000.

DTU-entrepreneurs are involved in five out of six category winners in this year's Venture Cup Idea Competition. The overall winner is the start-up company POC Solutions.

Ahead of 24 other finalists teams from Danish universities—of which DTU participated in 11—POC Solutions was crowned the overall winner of the Venture Cup idea Competition on Friday, 29 January.

POC Solutions
The team behind POC Solutions includes Winnie E. Svendsen, associate professor at DTU Nanotech and Dan Høgdall, PhD student at the University of Copenhagen, who have developed a chip to help detect and diagnose certain cancers better and earlier than today.

We are on to something great
"This prize is very important for our start-up company. It validates that we are on to something great, and we can now move forward with developing a business plan and getting the business off the ground," says Winnie E. Svendsen.

The award-winning idea is that you take a sample from e.g. urine or saliva and measure the content of so-called exosomes—small vesicles that are secreted by cells in the body to the blood stream. An increase in exosomes—particularly in urine—may indicate the presence of various types of cancer.

Early warning…
Today, it is both expensive and time-consuming to examine the content of exosomes. However, POC Solutions’ new chip enables you to check the data on the spot. In addition, the chip can also be used at pre-screens where it can detect the onset of cancer of the pancreas, for example.

Winners of the remaining five categories:

Besides the prize for best idea, the jury of professional business people and entrepreneurs also chose the winners of in five other categories:

Cleantech & Environment

HP Now
Cost-efficient environmentally friendly biocide on-site, on-demand.
DTU

Product & Technology

SoundSense
Allows people have the full acoustic experience of their favourite music without damaging their hearing in the long run.
DTU

Social Entrepreneurship

Mobilized Construction
Mobilize and employ thousands of individuals to improve local infrastructure at a fraction of the current cost.
Aalborg University (AAU)

Web & Mobile

Data Mine
Streamlines data services and saves scientists time by using propriety conversion algorithms to provide all the data required.
DTU and University of Copenhagen (KU)

FinTech

Trayce
Simple expense management, just as it should be.
DTU and Copenhagen Business School (CBS)