Tenomix, The Forge client, won the grand prize at Innovation Factory’s ninth annual Synapse Life Science Competition, taking home $50,000 in cash, a legal in-kind package, a one-year membership with Life Sciences Ontario and the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce, and a consultancy in-kind package from Shift Health.
The Synapse Competition is Ontario’s premier life science pitch competition and is dedicated to fostering the commercialization of innovation in the life science sector. Delivered by Innovation Factory, in collaboration with the Synapse Consortium, the competition assists innovators, scientists and researchers to bring their ideas to market, increase revenues, leverage intellectual property, attract investment, and create jobs.
Following an intense three-month training and commercialization program, 14 of Ontario’s innovative early-stage life science companies received a $5,000 grant to support their commercialization journey to business success.
Saumik Biswas, CEO and co-founder of Tenomix, pitched the startup’s cutting-edge automated benchtop solution, called the Lymphonator, that scans surgically removed cancer tissues and automatically determines the location of lymph nodes. Biswas explained how the Lymphonator could significantly reduce pathology and hospital costs, provide confidence to pathology staff that all lymph nodes have been collected, and more importantly allow patients to receive more accurate cancer staging.
“I am incredibly proud and excited that Tenomix won the grand prize at the 2022 Synapse Life Science Competition. The competition pushed us to create a strong investor-ready business plan and pitch deck, while the cash prize and in-kind services will help us reach our next critical milestones, which are to finalize our beta-prototype and conduct a clinical pilot study,” said Dr. Eveline Pasman, COO and co-founder of Tenomix. “We really appreciate the resources and opportunities the Hamilton life science ecosystem has provided Tenomix with so far and would like to thank The Forge in particular for their continuous support and guidance.”
At the Showcase event, the top three Synapse Competition finalists; Tenomix, Goji Technology Systems Inc, and Kultura Diagnostics delivered their pitches to the esteemed judging panel and competed for their share of over $105,000 in cash and in-kind prizes. The Forge clients, Dahlia and Celerite Labs were also among the remaining eleven finalists.
Watch Tenomix’s award winning pitch:
Read more about The Forge clients competing in the Synapse Life Science Competition.