MISO Chip

Cancer continues to be a major concern worldwide. Many are looking for more effective and innovative ways to treat it. This is a difficult task, as each body and each tumor responds differently to treatments. Furthermore, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies that develop cancer drugs find that 95% of them fail in clinical trials, leading to massive losses.

In 2019, Étienne Laurent, a student at Polytechnique Montréal fascinated by technology, came across physics professor Dr. Gervais’ microfluidic device. Together with radiation oncologist Dr. Wong, they developed applications to test anticancer drugs in combination with on-chip radiotherapy.

Etienne managed to persuade the researchers to partner with him in commercializing the technology they had been working on for seven years, and MISO Chip was born!

The startup is marketing a microfluidic preclinical platform that allows the ex vivo culture and testing of human tumor samples. Oncologists take a tumor biopsy sample from their patients, load the chip with fragments of the biopsy, and test a range of drugs on the patient's cells. The chip therefore helps pharmaceutical companies develop more effective drugs by performing tests on real tumors, which saves time and money.

While most cancer treatments are based on statistics, personalization has the immense advantage of increasing efficiency and reducing trial and error. The preclinical platform can predict each patient’s response to treatment in real time. This is personalized medicine at its best!

Juno Technologies

If there is one thing that is inevitable for women for about thirty years, from adolescence to menopause, it is menstruation! Juno's client base is large. More than 80% of women suffer from menstrual pain, according to Women's Health Concern . The subject has hardly been studied: as little as 0.1% of scientific articles concern the question of menstrual pain! Yet it is the leading reason for consulting a gynecologist, and also the leading cause of absenteeism at work.

Magic bags, hot water bottles, anti-inflammatories: the solutions that exist to combat menstrual cramps have not evolved for decades! Nanette Sene knows something about it, as does Lynn Doughane, the two co-founders.

Juno is a medtech and femtech (women's health technologies) startup. In 2021, the two young engineers developed a compact, discreet and portable device, at the abdomen level, to relax the muscles of the uterus. It is microelectronics that blocks pain signals. Women can finally experience instant relief without medication. Burn your panties: it's a revolution!

Ditch Labs

Everyone knows the effects of smoking, which causes lung, throat and mouth cancers, strokes, etc. However, it remains the leading cause of death in the country.

However, it would take on average more than ten attempts before successfully quitting: the success rate for quitting smoking is around 7%! Patches, gums and oral sprays are not effective for all smokers. "The common flaw in these products is that they aim to treat a very complex addiction using a universal approach," explains Laurent Laferrière, co-founder.

Founded in 2020 in Montreal by two serial entrepreneurs, Ditch has developed a smoking cessation solution, a smart nicotine vaporizer, which allows a gradual and automatic reduction of nicotine, as well as a mobile application for personalized psycho-behavioral support. This is often where the shoe pinches… Considering the physical and psychological aspects of addiction, a first in the industry!

Azimut Medical

Our population is aging. A quarter of Canadians will be over 65 by 2030. When we know that minor injuries can quickly degenerate (a third will suffer a fall this year), with bones becoming fragile over time, a simple and practical device to protect our seniors is a good idea!

Maxime Bolduc's grandmother had broken her hip; that was just the beginning of a series of complications... So he tackled the problem with his co-founder by designing smart underwear that can detect a fall and inflate to cushion the shock!

Another deployable wearable technology, adapted to the prevention of hip fractures, a problem that, far from being the sexiest, would cost the health system nearly 3 billion dollars (all falls combined). Finding the solution to a real problem, that's also what being a promising startup is all about!

Momentum Health

Dr. Jean Ouellet, a pediatric spine surgeon at the Montreal Children's Hospital, and student Evan Dimentberg have developed a solution to remotely detect and monitor changes in the spine. "The key is to predict the progression of the spinal curvature to provide appropriate treatment in a timely manner." The goal is to avoid surgery and to be able to offer less invasive approaches such as physiotherapy or a temporary brace. A recent study showed that among young patients whose skeleton has not yet reached maturity, only 10% of cases of scoliosis progression require intervention.

Momentum Health's technology is an easy-to-use telehealth app that allows young patients to obtain a surface topography from a 30-second 360 video on a simple smartphone! The app transforms it into a photo-realistic 3D model that is scaled and quantifiable, to personalize deformity follow-up management.

It also allows for frequent monitoring, which is very helpful considering that a few months without a thorough check-up can have a huge impact on the progression of scoliosis, which could worsen between appointments and require major changes to treatment.

The app also reduces the risk of exposure to large amounts of radiation for young, growing patients. But the risk of cancer associated with years of repetitive X-rays is not small. 90% of these patients are now exposed to unnecessary radiation… at least, until Momentum Health came along!