MiWEndo Solutions develops MiWEndo, a novel medical device that applies microwave imaging technology to colonoscopy. MiWEndo aims to contribute to improving prevention and diagnosis of colorectal cancer, as well as serving as an exploratory tool to increase the scientific knowledge about this type of cancer. MiWEndo automatises the detection of  polyps and raises an alarm when one is detected. Furthermore, it augments the field of view to 360º and provides quantitative tissue classification, without any modification to current clinical procedures.

Colon cancer is a highly prevalent and devastating disease. The current push for screening programs worldwide has led to an increase in colonoscopy procedures. Detection of polyps in these explorations highly relies on the experience of the clinical expert, and is therefore subject to subjectivity and fatigue. MiWEndo aims at providing a novel valuable tool to the clinician, thus contributing to reduce the number of missed polyps in colonoscopies.

The global market for colonoscopy is approximately 1550M€, with a yearly increase of 5%. The main target markets for MiWEndo, at present, are Europe, USA and Japan. MiWEndo is a patented device, and it is safe, complementary to existing colonoscopes and low-cost. MiWEndo will lead to increased polyp detection rates and better decision support, by providing more information about the malignancy of the tissue. It will also reduce time and cost, in terms of faster explorations, less repeated colonoscopies, reduced patient preparation time and earlier detection and treatment of colorectal cancer.

Further information:

[1] González Ballester et al. (2017), European patent no. EP3195786A1.

[2] Guardiola et al. (2018), Medical Physics, vol. 45(8), 3768-3782.

[3] Guardiola et al. (2019), IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 67(8), 4968-4977.

Nostrum Biodiscovery is a biotechnological company focused on the computational biology sector and specifically; in the structure-based drug design area dedicated to early drug discovery and development based on rational design techniques.

For 12 years, Dr. Modesto Orozco and Dr. Victor Guallar supported by top-tier public research institutions as Barcelona SuperComputing Center (BSC), Institute for Research in Biomedine (IRB Barcelona), ICREA and Universitat de Barcelona (UB) have been developing innovative in silico tools to reduce pharmaceutical and biotechnological R&D costs while improving the productivity and future profitability of the drug discovery process.

Nostrum Biodiscovery technologies represents a unique breakthrough in this field since they will be bringing key features to pharmaceutical discovery users as the new approach to molecular simulation, target characterization, drug recognition and an integrated molecular dynamics into the drug value chain.