miDiagnostics, a Belgian health tech startup developing silicon chip technology for clinical tests, has raised €14 million from existing investors, plus Dr. Rudi Pauwels and Dr. Ir. Urbain Vandeurzen.
MiDiagnostics aims to make “diagnostic information as readily accessible as digital information on a smartphone,” according to CEO Nicolas Vergauwe. Combining a nanofluidic processor on a chip and a compact reader, the startup claims it can measure virtually any biomarker from an easily acquired sample, such as drops of blood from a fingerprick.
The diagnostics platform has potential in specific healthcare scenarios, all of which made centrally relevant by the coronavirus outbreak: monitoring chronic patients at home; fast screening for physicians or remote health centers in developing countries; and widespread monitoring during pandemics. The proprietary technology was invented by imec, an R&D and innovation hub in nanoelectronics in Belgium, and Johns Hopkins University, a leading US research and medical centre. Both organisations are investors in the Leuven-based startup, along with PMV, a Flemish investment fund, and other serial entrepreneurs.
The funding will speed up development of the nanofluidic processor on a chip and prepare it for “industrial-scale manufacturing”.
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