BioPixS

Sanathana Konugolu Venkata Sekar, BioPixS

Creating standards in the field of Biophotonics through innovative phantoms that simulate human tissue optical properties.

What problem are you solving and what is innovative about your approach?

96% of translational biophotonics research fail. One of the key reasons is the lack of a standardised approach to assesses the performance of biophotonics devices. Our innovative, commercially unique phantoms simulate the optical properties of tissue and create a standardised approach to assess device performance. This accelerates instrument development at reduced costs in the field of biophotonics.

Few potential areas of application include the use of phantoms for:

1. characterisations during instrument development
2. calibration/testing of instruments during maintenance and servicing
3. verification of clinical methodologies
4. standardisation of protocols and devices.

On the social front, our phantoms target to reduce the animals used in preclinical trials by providing parallel solutions and optimise clinical trials, thus reducing costs, time for developers and pain experienced by these thousands of animals being exploited in these trials.

Innovative approach:

1. Our trade secret recipes and ongoing patent filing enable us to provide unique solutions to our customers that have not been found before in the market.
2. Our deeper understanding of the characterisation tools (Time-domain diffuse optical spectroscopy) for these phantoms enable a high degree of traceability, promoting credible, reproducible research across the biophotonics community.
3. Our long-lasting tissue phantoms simulate 1) optical (absorption, scattering) 2) acoustic properties along with 3) anthropomorphic features extracted from x-ray scans of the human body, forms a unique solution that addresses the pressing needs of the various customers in the market.

How is this idea commercially attractive?

Our products will reduce the cost and time needed to develop and maintain hi-tech biomedical devices in photonics. It has the potential to revolutionise the entire biophotonics value chain, from laboratory to clinical applications. Our solution directly addresses the key strategic orientation of Horizon Europe Cluster 1 (health) thus positioning us at the centre of the next generation of innovation/emerging markets foreseen in Europe and beyond. The points below are testament to our commercial attractiveness,

1. Funding & Sales:

   We have raised as much as 700000 euros through grants and sales within 4 months of our inception as a company, which is a validation for our value proposition/vision.

2. Ongoing Testimonial Projects:

   VASCOVID/HemoCovid for Covid-19: In these Covid-19 projects, BioPixS phantoms will fast track biophotonics instrument development/deployment at various hospitals to impact recovery of Covid-19 patients. So far, we have shipped our products across the world covering 6 countries. (scope: International)

TinyBrains: BioPixS phantoms will aid the development of neuroimager to understand the origins of CHD (congenital heart disease) in term/preterm infants. (scope: International)

What do you hope to achieve by participating in Big Ideas?

We are looking for exposure and networking opportunities with potential strategic investors and customers for our products.