The team behind the medical device start-up MediSieve has been nominated for their potentially life-saving magnetic blood filtration device in the Healthcare Application category of the 2017 TCT Awards.
The MediSieve device is a magnetic sieve which allows for easier treatment of the global killer malaria, by directly filtering infected cells from a patient’s bloodstream.
As the device concludes pre-clinical validation and progresses to clinical trials, MediSieve’s experts are now beginning research into ways to broaden the applications of their device, using magnetic particles to target specific disease-causing components in blood. This could include treatments for sepsis and leukaemia.
The TCT Awards judges will look at the category’s contenders and consider how they capitalise on 3D technologies, in particular, the ability to create bespoke one-off parts. They will also look at how they could save lives, whether they reduce costs for healthcare providers and how novel they are. The last criteria are their prospects for future development and their social and educational impact.
George Frodsham, founder and CEO of MediSieve, said: “3D printing had been an invaluable tool for us, particularly when we needed to frequently change small physical aspects of our design. Our Rep Rap 3D printer enabled us to do this easily, quickly and cheaply. I don't know how we would have managed otherwise - it would have been difficult to survive as a start up on a very tight budget.”
The annual TCT Awards cover ten categories and celebrate innovation and collaboration across the R&D sector.
The nomination is the latest achievement for the MediSieve team which has already reached the final round of MassChallenge UK 2016, a global non-profit startup accelerator. The team has also enjoyed £350,000 in seed funding from angel investors, received a Pathfinder Award from the Wellcome Trust, won an Innovate UK Smart 2015/16 Proof of Concept Award grant worth £100,000 and secured €50,000 of funding through the EU Horizon 2020 programme.
The team behind the device have also presented at the Royal Society of Medicine's 12th Medical Innovations Summit and have been featured in The Telegraph and many other major journals and publications.
