Optica (Optics and Photonics News, formerly OSA) has just revealed their 12 entrepreneurs to watch, including Dr Sanathana Konugolu Venkata Sekar, Senior Researcher at the SFI Research Centre for Photonics, IPIC, who has co-founded BioPixS (est. 2020, an IPIC, Tyndall, UCC Innovation spinout). BioPixS’ core product delivers a range of phantoms (stand-ins for human tissues) that simulate the interaction of light with tissue, reducing time and cost to develop high-tech biomedical devices. BioPixS’ phantoms also target the reduction of animal use in preclinical trials, providing parallel alternatives.
Dr. Konugolu Venkata Sekar explains
“These phantoms serve a pressing need for validation of clinical methodologies, characterisations, calibration of instruments, and standardisation of protocols and lifetime surveillance of clinical devices. Our mission is to be a one-stop solution for all biophotonics standardisation needs. BioPixS will spur innovation and fast track the next generation of biomedical tools.”
BioPixS is part of European projects VASCOVID and TinyBrains, fast-tracking biomedical device development to market.
Sanathana is currently a Senior Researcher and Biomedical Theme Coordinator at IPIC Biophotonics@Tyndall. His current research work includes the development of next generation microcamera based in body diagnostic/surgical guidance tools, upconverting nanoparticle for deep tissue imaging and immuno-histopathology, GASMAS for neonatal lung monitoring, next generation time of flight spectroscopy for wearable applications.
Find out more about Optica's Entrepreneurs to Watch here.