Yesterday, at the Health 2.0 2013 Conference in Santa Clara, California, Nanobiosym Health RADAR was awarded the $525,000 Grand Prize in the first competition of the $2.25 million Nokia Sensing XCHALLENGE.
The prize was awarded for their Gene-RADAR® sensing technology that will potentially transform the way health care is delivered by enabling personalized diagnostic testing.
The competition is sponsored by Nokia and administered by the XPRIZE Foundation.
The winning technology from Boston-based Nanobiosym Health RADAR, a research incubator institute, can analyze a drop of blood, saliva or other bodily fluid that is placed on a nanochip. The chip is then inserted into a mobile device, which detects the presence or absence of a disease’s pathogen in less than an hour, with the same accuracy as a diagnostic lab. The technology is easy-to-use and does not require things like electricity or running water, which should lead to widespread adoption in developing countries.
Check out this video about the winning project featuring Team Nanobiosym’s Dr. Anita Goel:
It should be noted that Nanobiosym has already demonstrated custom applications for E. coli and HIV/AIDS with potential applications across the entire spectrum of health care including diagnosis, monitoring, drug development, companion diagnostics, and personalized nanomedicine.
“Congratulations to Nanobiosym and all of the teams who competed in the first competition of the Nokia Sensing XCHALLENGE,” said Henry Tirri, executive vice president and chief technology officer at Nokia. “The technologies demonstrated by the teams show the potential for sensors to bring greater efficiency, reliability and affordability to the health care system. We are taking a significant step towards creating an ecosystem of innovative technologies that will radically change the way people understand their state of health.”
For this first challenge, 26 teams competed from seven different countries. Out of that group, 12 finalist teams were selected, and they had the opportunity to demonstrate their sensing technologies to business leaders and experts from the fields of digital health, technology, and healthcare during the Health 2.0 Conference being held this week.
It was noted in a recent story in Fast Company, that all 12 finalists share one thing in common: they are all “lab-on-a-chip technologies”. According to Mark Winter, senior director of the Nokia Sensing XCHALLENGE, “they’re small enough to be body wearable and programmable, but they use different methods.”
All of the finalists were evaluated for their distinction in the areas of accuracy and consistency, demonstration quality, technical innovation, human factors, market opportunity, originality, and user experience.
“We’re thrilled that the Nokia Sensing XCHALLENGE helped provide a platform for Nanobiosym and the other teams to bring their technologies from the lab to the street,” said Robert K. Weiss, vice chairman and president, XPRIZE. “The caliber of technology demonstrated by Nanobiosym truly exemplifies the goal of the Nokia Sensing XCHALLENGE – to advance innovative sensing technologies that will help transform health care into a system that is highly personalized and instantly accessible.”
In the final round of judging, five Distinguished Prizes each valued at $120,000 were awarded to Owlstone, InSilixa, Silcon BioDevices, Elfi-Tech and MoboSens.
The Nokia Sensing XCHALLENGE consists of two separate and consecutive competitions to advance innovative sensing technologies that capture meaningful data about a consumer’s health and the surrounding environment. Registration for the second competition in the Nokia Sensing XCHALLENGE is now underway and will close on February 12, 2014.
Launched in May 2012, the Nokia Sensing XCHALLENGE was established to stimulate the development of a new generation of health sensors and sensing technologies that will help lay the foundation for a mobile health revolution that transforms healthcare into a system that is highly personalized, instantly accessible and relevant to the medical needs of each individual.
To get more information about the Nokia Sensing XCHALLENGE and the winning teams from the first competition, visit: www.nokiasensingxchallenge.org.