Canada-UK Post-Doc Fellows win £2.5M+ in start-up funding for award-winning medical device
Canada-UK Post-Doc Fellows win £2.5M+ in start-up funding for award-winning medical device
Imagine the relief for cancer patients if they were able to do essential tests at home with a small finger prick device rather than undergo expensive and time-consuming hospital visits for testing. A breakthrough device will soon be coming to market, thanks to the ingenuity of two ambitious young Canada-UK Foundation Post-Doc Fellows. We recently caught up with Dr Nikki Weckman and Dr Saif Ahmad, to learn more about the successes they’ve experienced on their entrepreneurial journey after their Canada-UK Foundation Fellowship year at the University of Cambridge. Together they co-founded 52 North Health and developed this small medical device for early detection of sepsis in cancer patients. The technology will revolutionize cancer patient care and save untold millions in the health system. They’ve secured more than £2.5M in funding through investment and grants, and garnered several impressive awards along the way. The investment capital raise was led by Cambridge Enterprise, the investment arm of the University of Cambridge, and awards include Novartis’s HealthHub Accelerator Programme, semi-finalist in the Harvard President's Innovation Challenge, and significant awards (£100k followed by £1m) from SBRI Healthcare.
Technology highlight, as outlined by SBRI in their award to 52 North Health: “The 52 North device – NeutroCheck® - will rapidly identify chemotherapy patients at risk of a life-threatening complication called neutropenic sepsis. Through better triaging, 52North has the potential to save hundreds of UK lives per year, free-up healthcare resources, and make patients’ lives easier, simpler, and better. Neutropenic sepsis is a life-threatening emergency, so patients are rushed to hospital if they show any symptoms. However, 50% of patients turn out not to have the condition, and therefore suffer unnecessary stress and receive unnecessary antibiotics. NeutroCheck is a fast, reliable and low-cost device to identify patients at risk of neutropenic sepsis at home, enabling rapid management of the condition for those who test positive and giving peace of mind to those who don’t. The device aims to improve patient safety and quality of life, reducing antibiotic wastage, and empowering doctors to treat their patients efficiently.”
About Nikki and Saif: Nikki is currently at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University, and will soon be moving to University of Toronto for a cross-appointment between the Chemical Engineering department and ISTEP, an institute focused on transdisciplinary and translational training (https://istep.utoronto.ca/) with an affiliation with the Centre for Global Engineering (https://cgen.utoronto.ca/) focused on engineering for the Sustainable Development Goals. Saif is an MD-PhD Academic Consultant Oncologist based at the University of Cambridge and Addenbrooke’s Hospital. He is also an Assistant Editor with the Royal College of Radiologists’ Clinical Oncology journal.
