Due to Covid, last year’s winners of the Venture Challenge were announced today at the Dutch Life Sciences Conference. The proud winner of the fall edition is QurieGen, formerly known as Monoceros Analytics. The innovative startup QurieGen has developed a single-cell sequencing-based method to map the changes in transcriptome, membrane and 100’ of intracellular (phospho)proteins simultaneously across multiple pathways (IP filed) to obtain a high-resolution map of cellular response.
According to the jury, comprised of Carine van den Brink, Geert-Jan Mulder, Sterre Witteveen, Fred Dom and Henk Viëtor, QurieGen is addressing a real need as experienced by drug developers. They have a clear value proposition on which they can expand in the future. QurieGens' long term goal is to enable the data-driven discovery of new cellular response patterns and new drug targets. By quantifying the cellular response to 100's cancer drugs and stimuli, they will generate a large data sets necessary to train algorithms that can identify cell-type- or patient-specific responses to drugs, and new drug targets. QurieGen is now taking the first steps towards the algorithm-driven approach by studying the mode of action of four BTK-inhibitors used for B-cell cancer treatment.
"The Venture challenge is a wonderful journey for every group that wants to take their first step into entrepreneurship. Just remember to not give up, find the right people for your team, stay focused and believe in yourself!"
-Kinga Matula, founder of QurieGen
The Venture Challenge Fall 2021 started in September last year. Today at the Dutch Life Sciences Conference QurieGen takes home the €25.000 prize money to invest in their growth. The other highly-motivated participating teams were: Ardim, Encytos, InnoFluidics(Purecyte) and Trianect (StrokeConnect).
Participating in the Venture Challenge leads to a clear venture plan, as well as to investor-ready pitches. The LifeSciences@Work Accelerator is powered by Health~Holland, Top Sector Life Sciences & Health. Contact Kinga Matula For more information about QurieGen.