Medically inducing hypothermia in a patient has been shown to prevent further brain injury following stroke, brain trauma or cardiac arrest but the process also cools the entire body potentially leading to blood clotting and even heart attacks.
A medical device to avoid these complications has been developed in London, Ontario and now a new competition has launched to bring it and four other innovative technologies to market.
The Proteus Innovation Competition begins Wednesday, November 4 with an official kickoff event at Western University’s Propel Entrepreneurship (Western Student Services Building, Room 2130). The event begins at 3 p.m.
A partnership of WORLDiscoveries, TechAlliance, Western Research Parks, Propel and Leap Junction, Proteus is open to anyone 18 years of age or older.
The competition includes three main stages, as well as two interactive workshops to assist contestants. The first stage is completing an abstract while the second is the development of a commercialization plan. Proteus culminates with a ‘live pitch’ competition. The team with the best overall commercialization strategy will receive a cash prize and the opportunity to licence the technology and start their own company.
The five emerging technologies featured in the competition are the previously mentioned brain cooling medical device, an automatic building layout generator, a responsive biodegradable polymer, a finger pad digitizer and ear surgery training software.
“There is a commercialization gap in Canada that needs to be filled and in an effort to explore all possibilities, we decided to get the community involved,” says Lisa Cechetto, Executive Director, WORLDiscoveries. “We are looking for unique ideas and entrepreneur minded individuals that can elevate these technologies to the next level. They’ve been developed on the bench top and it’s now time they make it to market.”
For more information or to enter the competition, please visit www.Proteusic.com or contact Harman Malhi, Business Analyst, TechAlliance, 519-858-5118, harman.malhi@techalliance.ca
MEDIA CONTACT: Jeff Renaud, Senior Media Relations Officer, 519-661-2111, ext. 85165, jrenaud9@uwo.ca, @jeffrenaud99
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