G-Therapeutics wants to help people with spinal cord injury to walk again. Last week the EPFL-spin-off won the Grand Prize at the “First Day of Tomorrow” competition in Paris. In addition Gimball, another Swiss start-up, was awarded the prize in the category “robobtics” which is worth EUR15’000.
More than 15 years of research at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) led to the development of fundamentally new treatment paradigms that restored voluntary locomotion in completely paralyzed animals with a success rate of 100%. G-therapeutics is a spin-off that aims to translate these patented breakthroughs into a viable therapy for humans. The company is developing an implantable spinal stimulation system and robot-assisted training to rehabilitate spinal-cord-injured individuals. The team consisting of several engineers and medical experts has set-up a pioneering clinical proof of concept in humans that will start this spring in Lausanne university hospital (CHUV, Switzerland).
There are more than 6 millions of individuals whose quality of life is seriously affected by traumatic spinal cord injury. Current rehabilitative treatments (surgery, physiotherapy, rehabilitation) do not facilitate recovery of independent stance or walking, and are very costly to society. Existing solutions for this patient population such as wheelchairs and exoskeleton are heavy support equipments with limited comfort and movement possibility. G-Therapeutics wants to provide this patient population with therapeutical tools to promote their recovery. The solution of the Swiss start-up is currently the only approach which has demonstrated the recovery of voluntary locomotion in fully paralyzed animals.
G-Therapeutics still doesn’t have a website, however the company is getting more and more attention. Last week G-Therapeutics won the Grand Prize at the “First Day of Tomorrow” competition. More than 1200 candidates have applied fot this challenge.
Another Swiss start-up is the winner in the category „robotics“: Gimball. The start-up has developed an insect-inspired micro-drone which can collide on obstacles and continue its flight undisturbed. It opens new horizons for robots in search and rescue, industrial inspection, law enforcement, entertainment and communication.
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