Our Incubatees
Clearbridge BioMedics Pte Ltd
Source: National University of Singapore (NUS) spin-off
Space: Cancer
Situation: Circulating tumour cells or CTCs represent an important key in cancer detection and treatment. They are associated with metastasis, and studies show that the isolation of these rare cells has important prognostic and therapeutic implications. As such, enumerating CTCs in blood is crucial in helping clinicians make timely decisions and for patients to receive potentially personalised life-saving treatments.
Solution: Breakthrough invention using bio-mechanical properties instead of biomarkers to isolate rare CTCs from whole patient blood. With its patent pending microfluidic based design, wholly intact and, most impressively, viable tumour cells can be extracted from a standard blood sample. In clinical trials with National Cancer Centre Singapore and other institutions.
Website: www.clearbridgebiomedics.com
Clearbridge BioLoc Pte Ltd
Source: Korean transplant technology
Space: Immunoassay test platform
Situation: Immunoassays are the standard staple test for many infections and diseases, and are critical at the point of care. Current systems are relatively expensive and often require samples to be sent to off-site specialised laboratories for analysis. A low-cost, point-of-care solution is badly needed in health care screening and official checkpoints. The timeliness and efficacy of a low-cost, on-the-spot immunoassay will be invaluable.
Solution: An elegant, extremely cost effective, robust platform for any standard immunoassay test. The “ImmunoCard” enables standard antibody-antigen tests to be performed at the point-of-care and on-the-spot from one drop of blood from a finger prick. An extremely low-cost immunoassay system & platform that is simple and cheap to produce.
Website: www.clearbridgebioloc.com
Clearbridge NanoMedics Pte Ltd
Source: National University of Singapore (NUS) spin-off
Space: Cosmetic skin-care and wound management
Situation: Advanced functionalised nanofibre materials is a promising growth area. The global wound care market is projected to be USD 28.7 Billion in 2013 (Source: Freedonia, World Wound Management Products, Jan 2010), and the global skincare market is USD 58.5 Billion in 2012 (Source: Datamonitor, Skincare: Global Industry Guide, Feb 2009). There is an opportunity to better use functionalised and smart materials to address this growing demand.
Solution: A National University of Singapore (NUS) spin-off company, the company will focus on utilising base technologies on nanofibre manufacturing to produce bio-resorbable nanofibre scaffolding. The first product that we aim to develop is a high-surface contact area, ultra-pliable, time-release, leave-on facial mask. The nature of the nanofibre mesh gives it an ultra-high surface contact area due to the fine nature of the nanofibres. This provides better conformity to the skin’s surface can be encapsulated with collagen or other skin-enhancing ingredients. In addition, the extremely pliable nature of the nanofibre mesh makes it ideal for face contouring and its ultra-thinness allows it to be worn at length comfortably. These nanofibres can also be made to have time-release properties, thereby allowing for nourishing compounds such as vitamins, sunscreen or other desirable medication to be continuously delivered directly to the skin at an optimum rate or dosage.
Website: www.clearbridgenanomedics.com
Clearbridge VitalSigns Pte Ltd
Source: National University of Singapore (NUS) spin-off
Space: Human vital signs monitoring (ECG Heart Monitor)
Situation: Existing portable ECG monitoring devices can be vastly improved in capturing significant heart events. Current devices are typically single channel, poor signal acquisition, low sensitivity, and have too short an operating life (<2 days). Large amount of noise artefacts due to dangling wires and movement also makes it difficult to obtain any meaningful information. Patient comfort is also compromised as these existing devices are highly uncomfortable, not waterproof (cannot take shower), and bulky with cumbersome wires.
Solution: A National University of Singapore (NUS) spin-off company from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, we have licensed an ultra-low power chip that enables a truly wearable, highly sensitive, accurate, fully-integrated, 7-day continuous full heart waveform cardiac monitoring digital ECG plaster that can be simply adhered to a patient's chest to gather and log vital human signals. This ECG data chip is fully integrated - complete with wide sensory algorithms, multi-channle capabilities, IC unit and storage RAM with ultra low power consumption (up to 20x less power then current circuits). This allows for a longer period of monitoring, thus enabling meaningful capture of these sporadic cardiac events, and a more compact and comfortable form factor.
Website: www.clearbridgevitalsigns.com
