Monday, 1/29/2018
The student was awarded for his sleeve to help
cancer patients. This was the most innovative of the ideas incubated in Startup
Nano.
Carlos
Gonçalves, student from the International Doctoral programme in Leaders for
Technical Industries (EDAM-LTI) from the MIT Portugal Programme at the School
of Engineering of the University of Minho (EEUM), has developed an active
compression sleeve that will help patients in the treatment of the swollen arm,
better known as upper limb lymphedema. This was the most innovative of the ideas
incubated for 10 weeks by Startup Nano, the first national acceleration and
incubation programme for startups in nanotechnology.
The programme
was promoted by the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL), the Centre
for Nanotechnology and Smart Materials (CeNTI), partnering with Startup Braga.
Upper limb lymphedema
is common in breast cancer patients and is characterised by an increase in the
arm diameter, which causes disabling pain. Current therapies consist of arm
compressions using lymphatic drainage massages and pressotherapy using
inflatable sleeves. Carlos Gonçalves explains that the new compression sleeve
is innovative because up to now “current therapies have to be performed in
public or private hospitals, which forces patients to travel and does not allow
frequent treatments”. “With the active compression sleeve, treatment will be
possible anywhere, anytime”, the researcher highlighted.
This project
results from a partnership between the University of Minho (UMinho), CeNTI and
MIT and is currently under a national patent registration process. The researcher
clarifies that the result of the patent application is awaited soon, so that it
is possible to complete the procedures necessary for a European patent
application, aiming at marketing the product. Carlos Gonçalves considers that
this award “is an important recognition of the work carried out as a student of
the EEUM”.
The second award
of this second edition of Startup Nano was granted to a project of
microfiltration of fluids against dust and pathogens, under the coordination of
Hugo Macedo, and the third award to a bioreactor that allows a tighter control
of the cell culture conditions, presented by Marta Maciel and Ricardo Pereira,
UMinho’s former students. The pre-selection of the candidates took place in
October 2017, where nine projects were selected for the incubation phase.
+ info: startupnano.eu; facebook.com/StartupBraga/posts/922990691186596; facebook.com/events/324132741436537; www.mitportugal.org/mitp-media/press-releases/2294-startup-nano-compression-sleeve-useful-useful-for-breast-cancer-patients-gives-the-first-prize-to-a-mit-portugal-student-at-the-university-of-minho
