New technology destroys cancerous tumours

One of the innovations in PeptiCRAd, which harnesses the body’s own immune defence system to battle cancer.In animal tests, the new technology has already been used to destroy cancerous tumours typical to humans. PeptiCRAd is an invention by Associate Professor Vincenzo Cerullo from the University of Helsinki’s Faculty of Pharmacy.At the moment, the University is trying to find an entrepreneur and investors to partner with Cerullo and help the invention take over the world.

This year, the university community has registered more inventions and established more spin-out companies commercialising research results than ever before.  A spin-out is a company based at the university which relies on intellectual property or know-how owned by the university.

At the University of Helsinki, the commercializing is conducted by Helsinki Innovation Services (HIS), a company owned by the University.At Slush, the commercialisation experts of HIS, search for entrepreneurs to run the spin-out companies, which have been established around new innovations and for investors to provide funding.

“Top research results in top innovations.The best inventions are often made by people at the bleeding edge of an issue, who are trying to study something completely new,” says Jari Strandman, CEO of HIS. 

International success stories in Finland

Slush will also feature MOPRIM, a company working on the Internet of Things. More and more objects, such as cars, use different kinds of sensors to gather information about their environment.There is an enormous amount of data, but we lack intelligent methods to quickly render that data significant for users through the Internet.MOPRIM has the solution.

MOPRIM’s precise technology analyses acceleration data, i.e., generating new opportunities for using data collected by mobile devices in urban planning or health care. Created by Sasu Tarkoma, Professor of computer science, the innovation is being commercialised by Petri Martikainen, former CEO of MultiTouch.The technology has already garnered interest from many international mobile and transportation companies.

 “We are creating international success stories in Finland.We can help spin-out companies find the right partners and investors.Our goal is for in-house innovations to help fund research in the future,”  Strandman finishes.

Eight finalists based at the University of Helsinki

This year, Slush is organising a Science Pitching Competition for the first time, with ten of today’s most interesting research-based innovations vying for victory. Eight of the ten finalists have a connection to the University of Helsinki.

Please join us at the University of Helsinki's partner stand 2b.