Facilitated by CorkBIC, via their Internationalisation Programme, Radisens was chosen from hundreds of European opportunities based on numerous stringent investment criteria. Recently named 2010 European Business Angel Network of the year by EBAN, SBA creates unique financial instruments to promote innovation and growth in high potential European startups, driven by French wealth tax law.

“Radisens’ experienced multi-disciplinary team, unique business model and high growth target market were significant attractions for us to invest” said Juliana Garaizar, SBA General Manager. “There’s no doubt that point-of-care is a huge growth area and Radisens’ disruptive technology gives it a significant edge”.

“This is a significant endorsement by Europe’s premier angel network,” said Jerry O’Brien, Radisens CEO. “SBA’s track record speaks for itself. We look forward to continue working with them to build Radisens into a world leading portable diagnostics company.”

About Radisens Diagnostics

Radisens Diagnostics develops portable digital diagnostic platforms for use by GP’s in their clinics for rapid diagnosis of early cancers, cardiac markers, infectious diseases and myriad other blood related illnesses. By miniaturizing gold-standard clinical laboratory instruments, results are delivered within five minutes on a handheld instrument. The GP simply applies a pin-prick of patient’s blood to one of a suite of consumables under development at Radisens, which integrate all necessary sample preparation steps, and inserts it into the platform for quantitative laboratory-grade diagnosis. No solution on the market offers a multiplexed, quantitative platform for blood testing across such a wide range of applications in a single portable, battery-operated instrument. This patent pending disruptive technology is driving a step change towards rapid handheld analysis at point-of-care.

About Sophia Business Angels Fund

Recently named European Business Angel Network of the year, Sophia Business Angels (SBA) is a select network of international serial entrepreneurs and senior managers based in the European high-tech capital of Sophia Antipolis, France. With members from 15 countries, SBA actively invests in early national, and international start-up projects which bring a significant return on investment. Given the group’s combined expertise in finance, ICT, Bio, and Energy, the SBA invests and mentor companies in ICT, CleanTech, MedTech/Health, and B2B. Over the last 6 years more than 50 SBA members have invested more than €20M of their own and managed money in more than 40 companies worldwide, with numerous successful exits.

About CorkBIC

CorkBIC is a leading interdisciplinary venture consultancy operating in the South & Mid-West of Ireland. The company has provided an integrated process for incubating and growing high potential technology companies over the last 21 years with an 85% success rate.  CorkBIC manages The Business Angel Partnership (BAP) in it’s region – a joint initiative between Enterprise Ireland, InterTrade Ireland and the Irish Business Innovation Centres (BICs). The BAP Operates on a regional basis, providing a matching service for private investors (Business Angels) and pre-screened investment opportunities in start-up, early stage and developing businesses. The BAP recently completed its 50^th investment deal resulting in investments of €18million euro into a cross section of indigenous Irish companies.

Commercial Contact:

Radisens Diagnostics, The Rubicon Centre, CIT Campus, Cork Ireland

T: +353 21 492 8900  E: info@radisens.com

Karen Mostert, lead healthcare analyst at Business Insights comments: “Technological innovation will play a key role in the growth of the point-of-care testing POCT market. Developments are keenly anticipated in micro-fluidic and other molecular testing technologies for infectious diseases.”

The US market represents more than half of the total POCT market.  In the US, POCT products are in widespread use in the hospital, physician’s office and consumer settings. The US market continues to be responsible for much innovation in this field and is expected to grow at a higher rate than the overall market.

In Europe, the market varies from country to country, but overall growth will be constrained by healthcare cost-containment. The use of POC diagnostics is best established in Germany where, for example, coagulation self-testing by patients has been a widespread practice for over twenty years. Some catch-up growth (compared with previous years) is likely in the UK, which has had fairly slow growth for some time. In France, physicians are not allowed to carry out office-based POC testing, which reduces the size of the potential market. In Japan, the physician’s office testing market is not well developed and tests continue to be undertaken by a central laboratory.

Karen concludes: “Strong growth will be seen in all POCT sectors, with tests for cardiac markers, coagulation, and colorectal cancer showing CAGR of 15% or more. However, despite a lower CAGR of 11%, glucose monitoring will remain the largest segment, with a 77% share of the POCT market by 2013.

The nanophotonic technology has been developed as part of the Programmable Digital Camera project in the laboratory of Prof. Brian A. Wandell at Stanford led by Dr. Peter B. Catrysse. By integrating these photonic nanostructures monolithically onto a highly sensitive semiconductor detector, Radisens is miniaturising gold-standard clinical laboratory equipment into a portable platform capable of running myriad of multiplexed blood assays at point-of-care.

“Our nanophotonics research explores metal-based metamaterials and nanophotonic devices that enable efficient transport of light at the nano-scale for optical sensing applications” said Dr. Catrysse. “This is important, for example, to discriminate multiple scattering and fluorescent wavelengths inside biosensors the size of your fingernail”.

“We are pleased to access such innovative technology from Stanford,” said Jerry O’Brien, CEO of Radisens. “Nanotechnology is the key to unleashing the power of clinical laboratory diagnostics onto one portable point-of-care instrument. This allows medical practitioners to perform myriad blood tests at the patient’s side using a pin-prick of blood with results in minutes, leading to improved patient care and reduced healthcare costs.”

About Radisens Diagnostics

Radisens Diagnostics develops portable diagnostic platforms for use by GP’s in their clinics for rapid diagnosis of early cancers, cardiac markers, infectious diseases and myriad other blood related illnesses. By miniaturizing gold-standard clinical laboratory instruments, results are delivered within five minutes on a handheld instrument. The GP simply applies a pin-prick of patient’s blood to one of a suite of consumables under development at Radisens, which integrate all necessary sample preparation steps, and inserts it into the platform for quantitative laboratory-grade diagnosis. No solution on the market offers a multiplexed, quantitative platform for blood testing across such a wide range of applications in a single portable, battery-operated instrument. This patent pending disruptive technology is driving a step change towards rapid handheld analysis at point-of-care.

TCD’s Institute of Molecular Medicine (IMM) and School of Medicine, in partnership with it’s nanoscience research institute, CRANN, will lead this pan-European team that has attracted funding worth approximately €12m, to develop new nanomedical technology which will enable the early and rapid diagnosis of cancer. Radisens will concentrate on developing highly sensitive portable diagnostic platforms, targeting early cancer screening in point-of-care environments such as GP clinics, community centres and outpatient departments.

Professor Dermot Kelleher, Head of TCD School of Medicine and IMM Director said:  “This is a huge vote of confidence and recognises Irish leadership in the cutting edge field of nanomedicine.  This research programme will address some of the most important questions in human medicine relating to diagnosis and treatment of cancer, using 21st century experience and know-how in nanotechnology, and we are looking forward to the time when patients will benefit from these innovative technologies.”

“This is a huge endorsement in the innovative platform technology we are developing at Radisens” said Jerry O’Brien, CEO of Radisens. “Developing a portable handheld instrument to screen for various cancers using a pin-prick of blood will add significantly to early cancer diagnosis and increased survival rates”.

About Radisens Diagnostics
Radisens develops portable diagnostic platforms for point-of-care, resulting in rapid and reliable laboratory-grade blood testing across multiple assays. Radisens is miniaturizing gold-standard clinical laboratory diagnostic instrumentation and developing a consummable suite covering immunoassay, haematology and molecular diagnostic tests. No solution on the market offers a multiplexed, quantitative platform for blood testing across such a wide range of applications in a single portable, battery-operated instrument. This patent pending disruptive technology will drive a step change towards ubiquitous rapid handheld analysis in GP clinics, outpatient and emergency room settings.

About the Cancer Research Programme
TCD School of Medicine and CRANN Principal Investigator, Professor Yuri Volkov, will lead a European team of researchers to create advanced medical diagnostic devices, enabled by nanotechnology, which will allow the early and rapid diagnosis of cancer.   Importantly the new technology when developed will also enable the early detection of specific cancer types, leading to improved patient care. The programme will be led by a team of clinical medical researchers from St James Hospital Campus, in collaboration with the nanoscience Institute CRANN at TCD.

Kevin joined Alta Berkeley VC in 2003 and has a 20-year track-record of building and managing technology  companies in both Europe and the US. Prior to joining Alta Berkeley, Kevin held the position of President and CEO of ParthusCeva. He also led several successful high-technology start-up activities, including Parthus Technologies which had a successful IPO on the LSE and NASDAQ in 2000, and the StrongARM microprocessor business, acquired by Intel in 1998. Prior to returning to Europe in 1998, Kevin spent 10 years working on several high-tech businesses. He was the General Manager of the StrongARM business in Palo Alto, CA prior to its acquisition by Intel in 1998, and also worked on the original Alpha microprocessor for Digital Equipment Corporation. Before moving to the United States, Kevin worked on high-speed processor design for Philips BV in Eindhoven and in Dublin. He also spent four years working in the research labs at the NMRC (National Microelectronics Research Centre) attached to University College, Cork, Ireland.

Gary was Group Director, Finance & Enterprise Technology, at Allied Irish Banks (AIB) from May 1997 to December 2005, was a member of the main Board of AIB and was also on the Board of M&T, AIB’s associate in the United States. Prior to that, Gary was Group Vice President at Nortel Networks Europe after starting his management career at Deloitte & Touche. He served on the Board of the Industrial Development Authority (IDA) of Ireland for 10 years until he retired in December 2005. Gary was appointed a Director of Elan plc in May 2005, and is also a Director of Greencore Group. He is Chairman of a number of private companies. Gary is a chartered accountant.

“We are delighted to welcome both Kevin and Gary on board, leveraging their proven track records of positioning startups for high growth, attracting the necessary funding and implementing strong corporate governance”  commented Jerry O’Brien, Radisens CEO. “Having such high calibre members on our Board is a testament to our progress towards handheld haematology analysers”

About Radisens Diagnostics
Radisens develops portable diagnostic platforms for point-of-care, resulting in rapid and reliable laboratory-grade blood testing across multiple assays. Radisens is miniaturizing gold-standard clinical laboratory diagnostic instrumentation and developing a consummable suite covering immunoassay, haematology and molecular diagnostic tests. No solution on the market offers a multiplexed, quantitative platform for blood testing across such a wide range of applications in a single portable, battery-operated instrument. This patent pending disruptive technology will drive a step change towards ubiquitous rapid handheld analysis in GP clinics, outpatient and emergency room settings.

About Radisens Diagnostics
Radisens develops portable diagnostic platforms for point-of-care, resulting in rapid and reliable laboratory-grade blood testing across multiple assays. Radisens is miniaturizing gold-standard clinical laboratory diagnostic instrumentation and developing a consummable suite covering immunoassay, haematology and molecular diagnostic tests. No solution on the market offers a multiplexed, quantitative platform for blood testing across such a wide range of applications in a single portable, battery-operated instrument. This patent pending disruptive technology will drive a step change towards ubiquitous rapid handheld analysis in GP clinics, outpatient and emergency room settings.

About Global Growth Network
The Global Growth Network (GGN) was established to help small to mid-sized firms grow their business overseas by providing experienced international expertise. The GGN helps the building of overseas businesses by researching the market, writing a business plan, establishing a supply chain, recruiting staff, developing a sales network, or building a factory. The tools utilized would be a keen ear for the voice of internal and external customers, an analytic approach tempered by cross-cultural sensitivity, and an international network of relationships built over twenty years.

About Cicom
Cicom is a private company that combines French, European and world leaders in the sectors of facilities management and state of the art information technology. Founded in 1995 to manage and run the Advanced International Communication Centre (CICA) in Sophia Antipolis. Cicom was named a member of the European Business and Innovation Centre Network in 1998, has managed the European Telecom Innovation Center since 2001, and became a member of the European Space Incubator Network in 2002. Cicom successfully incubates numerous ITC and Telecoms SMEs from France and abroad, consults on the development of Technoparks and is involved in numerous European projects supporting the enhancement and innovation of SMEs in Europe.

About CorkBIC
CorkBIC is a leading interdisciplinary venture consultancy in the South West of Ireland. The company provides an integrated process for incubating and growing high potential technology driven companies. CorkBIC identifies, selects and develops about 12 higher potential startups per year and works as a hands-on catalyst or project developer in infrastructure gap initiatives.

About Sophia Business Angels
The Sophia Business Angels is a select group of international serial entrepreneurs and senior managers coming together once a month in the European high-tech capital of Sophia Antipolis, France. Today, the group numbers 50 + strong, hails from 15 countries stretching from South America to North America to the Middle East and to Europe, and has a proven serious interest to invest early in local, national, and international start-up projects which bring a significant return on investment. Given the group’s combined expertise in finance, ICT, Bio, and Energy, the SBA Members have been able to work as a club to find, fashion, and fund investments for their members throughout the world.

About EBAN
EBAN serves business angels, business angel networks, seed funds and other early stage investment professionals across Europe. EBAN is the representative in Brussels through direct and indirect membership of more than 250 business angel networks in Europe. These in turn federate some 20.000 angels, and receive about 40.000 business plans a year. EBAN brings together over 100 member organisations in 27 countries today.

About Succès Europe
Succès Europe is a Sophia Antipolis based European investment holding focusing on early-stage investments in the CleanTech, MedTech, ICT and B2B sectors. The founding shareholders and Investment Committee are all serial entrepreneurs or international managers and have founded or been heavily associated with such success stories as SES, GemPlus, Kaerys, COMEX, Adobe, MicroSoft, Nokia, LavaLife, etc. Succès Europe has an active investment philosophy which foresees using the experience, expertise, and network of their founding shareholders and Investment Committee to help their investee companies to global success.

Job Functions

• Be a leading part of Radisens’ hardware team, defining and implementing the next generation of portable medical diagnostic architectures
• Drive the design and development of our FPGA sub-system, implementing Radisens’ proprietary digital/DSP system algorithms
• Integrate the FPGA sub-system with current detector prototypes
• Follow design, verification and quality standards and best practises necessary for production test and regulatory approval
• Work closely with Radisens’ detector, software, diagnostic and application teams

Requirements

• Bachelors Degree in Electrical/Electronic Engineering
• 4+ years relevant digital/DSP development experience
• Proven competence in hardwired signal processing and conditioning/filtering techniques
• Must have developed designs from concept through to mass production
• Knowledge of one or more of the following is highly desirable:
  - hardwired signal processing architecture development
  - FPGA/DSP system design
  - medical diagnostics/research electronics
  - working as part of a multi-disciplinary team
• Proven competence working with:
  - verilog/VHDL and ansi-c firmware development
  - interfacing to ADC, FLASH & DSP controllers
  - high data-rate acquisition
  - FPGA/DSP development environments
• Team player with a can-do attitude and an ability to motivate others
• Strong passion for technology and engineering
• Comfortable working in a start-up environment

Candidates should apply online. Strictly no agencies.

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About Radisens Diagnostics

Radisens develops portable diagnostic platforms for point-of-care, resulting in rapid and reliable laboratory-grade blood testing across multiple assays. Radisens is miniaturizing gold-standard clinical laboratory diagnostic instrumentation and developing a consummable suite covering immunoassay, haematology and molecular diagnostic tests. No solution on the market offers a multiplexed, quantitative platform for blood testing across such a wide range of applications in a single portable, battery-operated instrument. This patent pending disruptive technology will drive a step change towards ubiquitous rapid handheld analysis in GP clinics, outpatient and emergency room settings.