On Wednesday evening, April 20 2022, the Austrian Business Service (aws) awarded the eighth PHÖNIX Founders' Prize to outstanding spin-offs and start-ups. This year, the AIT spin-off CellEctric Biosciences was awarded in the prototype category for its method for the rapid, specific and automated detection of pathogenic microorganisms, which revolutionises the diagnosis of blood poisoning.
Sepsis (blood poisoning) is a severe infection of the body caused by microorganisms, e.g. bacteria, fungi or viruses. It occurs when an infection is not only localised but spreads through the blood in the body, which often leads to life-threatening situations. In Austria alone, about 28,000 patients are affected every year, and 6,700 deaths are reported every year. Sepsis is thus one of the most frequent causes of death. One of the main problems in treatment is the time-consuming identification of the pathogens in order to be able to fight them effectively.
In recent years, the Viennese company CellEctric Biosciences - a spin-off of the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, Center for Health and Bioresources - has developed a method that enables rapid, specific and automated characterisation of the pathogenic microorganisms in the blood. This microfluidic procedure, which is carried out on a chip ("lab on a chip"), requires only a few millilitres of blood.
CellEctric won the PHÖNIX Founder's Prize in the Prototype category this year with its process. This year, the prize was awarded for the eighth time on behalf of the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Economics and was organised by the Austria Wirtschaftsservice (aws) in cooperation with the Forschungsförderungsgesellschaft (FFG) and the Industriellenvereinigung (IV). There were a total of 205 entries for the prize. 20 companies were nominated, from which the winners were finally selected by a jury.
Further Information (DE): https://www.ots.at/presseaussendung/OTS_20220421_OTS0162/ait-spin-off-cellectric-revolutioniert-diagnose-von-blutvergiftung
PHÖNIX - Der österreichische Gründerpreis: https://www.gruenderpreis-phoenix.at/