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Swiss start-up creates a replica of a human lung

Swiss start-up creates a replica of a human lung

Tokyo (SCCIJ) – The start-up AlveoliX from Berne has won the Swiss Medtech Award 2022 for its small-scale replica of the human lung. The device can also mimic respiratory motions. As a result, it enables multiple commercial applications.

Swiss start-up creates a replica of a human lung

Janick Stucki, co-CEO AlveoliX (from second on the left to the right), Lea De Maddalena, Junior Project Manager AlveoliX, Léa Todeschini, Business Developer AlveoliX at the Swiss Medtech award ceremony (Source: Swiss Medtech).

Cultivated cells

The lung-on-chip model simulates the microenvironment of the lung, including its respiratory movements. A thin, porous membrane facilitates the cultivation of human lung cells under extremely realistic physiological conditions. In this natural environment, cells react as they would in the human body.

According to the jury, this organ-on-chip technology has the potential to establish itself as the new standard in preclinical drug development, as a leading alternative to animal testing, and to significantly advance personalized medicine.

Jury president Prof. Mirko Meboldt of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ), said that AlveoliX and its interdisciplinary team have created a product “that sets new standards in drug development and has the potential to become a forerunner in the field of personalized medicine”.

Personalized testing

“Our technology increases the efficiency and safety of drug development and enables more personalized testing by using cells from each patient on the chip. In the future, our technology will help to reduce costs, as well as animal testing,” said Janick Stucki, co-CEO of AlveoliX. The start-up was founded in 2019.

“We are already collaborating with large pharmaceutical companies who are using our technology to test their drugs in development. We then compare the results of our chip with existing data from preclinical and clinical studies,” Nina Hobi, the other co-CEO, elaborated on the crucial step that AlveoliX includes on their way to product marketing.

Entrepreneurial vision

As Head of the Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research, Federal Councillor Guy Parmelin underlined the immense importance of the MedTech industry for Switzerland at the award ceremony: “The approximately 1,400 companies and 63,000 employees generated a turnover of CHF 18 billion, 12 billion of which came from exports.”

“The MedTech industry benefits from supportive and reliable framework conditions in Switzerland; in particular, highly qualified specialists, concentrated hubs of research and innovation, and access to a thriving capital market,” said Parmelin.

Peter Biedermann, Director of Swiss Medtech, was impressed by the company’s entrepreneurial vision to achieve a breakthrough in the marketing of its technology. “In Switzerland, resourceful ideas unfortunately too often fail on the way from prototype to market-ready product. Our country must make additional efforts to overcome this gap in translation,” he said.

Medtech initiatives

Swiss Medtech first launched the Swiss Medtech Award competition in 2018. The prize money of CHF 75,000 – sponsored by the Lichtsteiner Foundation, Sonova Group, Straumann Group, and Ypsomed – recognizes outstanding achievements in the Swiss medical technology industry. The jury evaluates candidates according to the patient benefit, improvements in healthcare, and technological pioneering spirit.

The winning team is announced each year during Swiss Medtech Day. Other event partners include Innosuisse (the Swiss Agency for Innovation Research) and konplan systemhaus ag. The main sponsors of the Swiss Medtech Day are be-advanced AG, Dassault Systèmes, Helbling Technik and Zühlke.

Text: AvioliX (editing by SCCIJ)

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