The level of the competitors was very high this year, and the most ground-breaking and innovative academic startups were selected to be the ‘Best academic startup in the Netherlands’. These startups are responsible for state-of-the-art and ground-breaking innovations in various fields, including Life Sciences, Health, High Tech, Energy, Logistics and Agri-Food. Kaminari Medical, part of Erasmus MC, is one of the winners in the Life Sciences and Health field.

In 2015, Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) affected 110 million people and resulted in 8.9 million deaths worldwide. CAD occurs when the arteries that supply the heart muscle with blood become hardened and narrowed, due to the buildup of cholesterol and plaque on their inner walls. The current treatment is to open the blocked  coronary arteries, 80% of the patients are treated using a Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI). However, of those patients treated with PCI, 12% get a re-catheterization within 12 months after the initial procedure. Total costs for these re-catheterizations are estimated at $2.4 billion.

Combination of ultrasound and photoacoustic imaging
Kaminari means literally the ‘god-sound’ and is Japanese for thunder and lightning. When a flash of lightning strikes, counting the seconds until hearning the thunder will tell you how close the storm is. Photoacoustics work the same way. Kaminari combines ultrasound (ivus) and photoacoustic (pa) imaging, providing better information on both plaque location and composition.

The company, invented by Gijs van Soest, is led by CEO Jeroen Kodde and couldn’t be more happy to be one of the 10 winners of the Academic Startup Competition this year. They hope the competition will give them the opportunity to grow their professional network and to move on from startup to scale-up.

Welcome team Kaminari Medical!