Category: Start-ups

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the U.S and metastatic disease remains predominantly incurable. New cancer cases and healthcare costs continue to increase year-over-year. Precision medicine aims to select the most effective treatments for patients, but existing approaches only benefit a minority of patients.

Basic blood tests require significant manual effort and are ubiquitous bottlenecks in healthcare systems. SafineAI seeks to develop a new “intelligent” computational microscope that, combined with cloud-based machine learning algorithms, will automate blood analysis and open up new diagnostic possibilities.

Duke engineering graduate students formed SafineAI to miniaturize a reconfigurable LED microscope. This concept has already earned them a $120,000 prize at a local pitch competition.

This microscope adapts its lighting angles, colors, and patterns while teaching itself the optimal settings needed to complete a given diagnostic task. In the initial proof-of-concept study, the microscope simultaneously developed a lighting pattern and classification system that allowed it to quickly identify red blood cells infected by the malaria parasite more accurately than trained physicians and other machine learning approaches.

The research was published in Biomedical Optics Express, a publication of The Optical Society (OSA) (www.dx.doi.org/10.1364/BOE.10.006351).

Simbuka is a Social Enterprise registered in Rwanda that positions environmental technologies and solutions for private sector investment and scale through technology validation and identification of an appropriate business model. Simbuka develops and implements adequate pilot programs to ensure the required resources are available and demonstrate economic viability in Rwanda and across the continent. By leveraging existing non-government and government programs in environmental management, WaSH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene) and manufacturing, Simbuka identifies appropriate partners to integrate innovation into the wider socio-economic framework, thus safeguarding continuation beyond the initial deployment.

Simbuka is currently exploring pilot opportunities and business models for technologies developed by the Duke University Center for Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Infectious Disease (WaSH-AID), North Carolina State University, and Triangle Environmental.

Dr. Ngaboyamahina

Dr. Ngaboyamahina is the Founder and Managing Director of Simbuka. He’s also a Research Scientist at the Duke Center for WaSH-AID (Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Infectious Disease) where he leads R&D activities that encompass waste treatment and technology transfer under the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-supported Reinvent the Toilet Challenge. The Center for WaSH-AID is an intensely collaborative translational research team, working closely with academic, non-profit, and private industry partners to facilitate the development and sustainable deployment of novel technology-based health solutions around the world.

Immcure aims to develop next-generation cancer immunotherapies that control tumor progression, convert cancers to manageable chronic diseases, and eventually lead to a cure.

The Pocket Colposcope

The new instrument with the potential to revolutionize cervical cancer screening in low-resource settings.

The Callascope

Reimaginging the gynecological exam as we know it, obviating the need for the speculum and enabling users to have more autonomy over their bodies.

A smart health platform that allows patients to gather information from health systems and insurance companies.