News Overview

And the Swiss Technology Award goes to … GratXray!

16.11.17
GratXray team (Dr. Marco Stampanoni, Dr. Martin Stauber, Dr. Zhentian Wang) celebrating their success on the stage of the Swiss Innovation Forum 2017.
GratXray team (Dr. Marco Stampanoni, Dr. Martin Stauber, Dr. Zhentian Wang) celebrating their success on the stage of the Swiss Innovation Forum 2017.

Did you like this article? Please share it.

Tags

Downloads

Yesterday, the winners of the Swiss Technology Award 2017 in three categories were announced at the Swiss Innovation Forum. Among them, GratXray AG, a start-up at PARK INNOVAARE, was awarded the prize for its revolutionary technology aiding early breast cancer detection.


For the third time in a row, PARK INNOVAARE has participated in the Swiss Innovation Forum, Switzerland’s biggest fair dedicated to new technologies and products. Together with our colleagues from the umbrella organization and four other sites, we welcomed all those interested in the mission of Switzerland Innovation: to support innovation and foster international collaboration in Switzerland.

This year, however, PARK INNOVAARE was also particularly interested in the Swiss Technology Award, the most important distinction for innovation and technology transfer in Switzerland, always awarded at the fair. GratXray, one of the companies founded and located on the site, was one of three finalists in the category “Inventors” and ultimately won the award in this category.

3D images in unprecedented quality

GratXray AG wants to set the future gold standard in mammography with a new type of imaging technique. Nowadays, mammography often leads to indecisive diagnoses and is painful for the patients. There is a great need in radiological research for improvement in this area. Behind the technology of GratXray is a novel “grating interferometry-based phase-contrast computer tomography system” (GIBCT). In contrast to conventional X-rays, where only the absorption of the radiation can be measured, GI-based breast imaging also captures the refraction and scattering of the X-rays. These images provide complementary information and unprecedented contrasts in three-dimensional image quality. The technology is particularly well suited for soft tissue but also works with breast implants or after reconstructive surgery. Compared to today's mammography methods, which can be problematic in the case of implants, this new technology is completely safe.

GratXray AG is planning to develop its first prototype in the next two years at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in cooperation with leading engineering companies. In three years, the device should already be market ready. “Our procedure will provide all women with access to pain-free, efficient and accurate breast imaging. We are very pleased to have won the award and will do our best to transform this technology into an innovative product and a successful Swiss med-tech company,” explains Dr. Martin Stauber, CEO of GratXray.

SIF

FLTR: John Millard, Technology Transfer Manager PSI, Dr. Marco Stampanoni, Co-founder GratXray, Dr. Martin Stauber, CEO GratXray, Dr. Zhentian Wang, CTO GratXray, Nils Gebhardt, Managing Director PARK INNOVAARE, Dr. GiorgioTravaglini, head of the Technology Transfer Department PSI).

Strengthen innovation culture. Build bridges to practice.

The Swiss Technology Award is designed to promote the culture of innovation in Switzerland and honor outstanding technology-based innovations. “We are shaping Switzerland to be an innovation location by setting up future-oriented start-ups at PARK INNOVAARE,” says Nils Gebhardt, Managing Director at PARK INNOVAARE. “We do our best to help these companies stay embedded in a productive environment and to support them using our strong corporate and scientific network.” It is not the first time that start-ups from PARK INNOVAARE have been nominated. Last year, novoMOF AG, a company that developed a new process for the scalable production of customized metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), and InterAx Biotech AG, working on a biosensors technology platform for efficient drug discovery, were among the three finalists in the “Inventors” category.