2020 Award Winners
A groundbreaking method for imaging the brain's chemical messengers, a decision support system for dialysis care, and a new super-strong transparent material for tomorrow's dentistry are among the innovative solutions that will become a reality through the 2020 Attractive Innovation Projects. Here, we present some of the twelve projects that received the award that year.
Tag-ON
Researchers of Uppsala University have developed new reactive compounds that increase the ability to map the presence and distribution of small molecules, such as neurotransmitters (NT) and neuromodulators (NM), on tissue sections without further information about the types of compounds that may be present in the sample. The new reactive compounds allow in-depth and completely new opportunities to understand where and how NT and NM work, e.g. after drug administration, and may lead to new insights into neurological processes and disease states. The two research groups, headed by Prof. Per Andrén and Assoc. Prof. Luke Odell respectively are at the forefront of the development of high-resolution imaging matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MSI), and have founded the company Tag-ON to make the new tools available to a broader audience.
Recova
Dialysis treatment is life-sustaining and for many an alternative while waiting for a kidney transplant. Individuals with severe kidney failure receiving dialysis have permanent variations in hydration status that may affect their survival. Recova is a decision support for dialysis care developed by Jenny Stenberg, a researcher at Uppsala University and nurse at Uppsala University Hospital, to be able to correctly assess a patient’s fluid balance so that neither too much nor too little fluid is removed during dialysis treatment.
Inventing the future of artificial teeth
Professor Håkan Engqvist and Associate Professor Wei Xia at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Uppsala University have developed a new glass-ceramic material for dental implants, which combines high mechanical strength with appealing aesthetic properties. This gives dentists the opportunity to make thinner and more durable constructs, where today they have to compromise between strength and aesthetics.
Zeeds
Zeeds is a tool designed to help individuals build meaningful habits and improve well-being based on modern psychological science. Zeeds is developed and brought to market by the health tech company Zeeds App, founded and led by Mamduh Halawa, a former psychology student at Uppsala University. Zeeds is utilized by psychologists to automate habit formation between sessions through a portal, providing real-time data on behaviors, mood levels, and values to enhance treatment adherence.
Elicera Therapeutics
The projects that create the foundation for Elicera Therapeutics are based on many years of research on how cells and viruses can be genetically engineered to trigger a powerful immune response to cancer. The researchers combine different types of immune-activating technologies, each of which gives rise to a multifaceted attack on the tumors. To date, the research group, headed by Uppsala University Professor Magnus Essand, has developed four drug candidates, two of which are in the field of oncolytic viruses and two in the field of CAR T-cell therapies, and the hope is that their candidates will lead to more effective treatment of neuroendocrine tumors, B-cell lymphoma, brain tumors and pancreatic cancer.
HistoOne
It is well known that pathologists are a limited resource in healthcare and that assessment of clinical tissue samples from e.g. cancer patients can take much too long. What is less well-known, is that clinical tissue samples used in research or to develop automated pathology assessments through AI, also are dependent on this resource. To address this unmet need a small team of pathologists and biomedical researchers at Uppsala University have founded HistoOne - a pathologist consultancy company that assembles pathology consultants from other countries for services directed to researchers and research-based companies.