Impulse - Meeting Healthcare Pioneers – Details, episodes & analysis

Sleep is the resting state that nature has chosen for us by default. Long overlooked or even neglected, it is one of the keys to good health, alongside nutrition, physical exercise, and mental and emotional health. Moreover, it is an excellent indicator of our overall health: when our sleep is disturbed, it usually means at least one of these four components is affected. It thus seems essential to be able to measure the quality of our sleep while minimizing the interaction or invasiveness of the measurement method with our body. And that is precisely the promise of Soumya Dash and his company Sleepiz! Based on radar technology, this Swiss startup has developed a compact device to place on a bedside table, capable of remotely clinically measuring sleep and detecting potential disorders such as sleep apnea or insomnia. No electroencephalogram to wear on the head, no pulse oximeter on the finger, nor any wearable around the wrist: everything is measured from the bedside table and without any direct interaction with the subject measured. In this surprising episode, we dive into the fascinating world of sleep, a realm with many secrets still to be uncovered! Soumya shares with us insights into the technology his team has developed, the difference between consumer-grade and medical-grade sleep monitors, and a glimpse into the future of healthcare in this field! Timeline: 00:00:00 - How Soumya came across sleep monitoring and why it matters 00:12:45 - How the Sleepiz device monitors sleep 00:18:20 - Relevant use cases and target indications of sleep disorders 00:22:35 - Differences between consumer-grade vs. medical-grade sleep monitors 00:25:35 - B2C and B2B business models 00:37:43 - Past milestones and challenges ahead What we also talked about with Soumya: ETH Zürich ISO 13485 norm Class IIa medical device 510(k) FDA clearance Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Oura Ring WHOOP IDUN Technologies SmartCardia As mentioned by Soumya during the episode, you can learn more about sleep and the current state of research in the book Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker. You will find more information about Sleepiz on their website and you can follow their activities on LinkedIn. If you want to get in touch with Soumya, you can do so via LinkedIn. If you want to give me feedback on the episode or suggest potential guests, contact me over LinkedIn or via email! And if you liked the episode, please share it, subscribe to the podcast, and leave a 5-star review on streaming platforms! 🙏 Lastly, don’t forget to follow our activities on LinkedIn and our website!

To discover the whole episode type "#31 - Measuring sleep remotely - Soumya Dash - Sleepiz" on your streaming platform.

Many of us struggle with allergies, usually something we’ve been dealing with our whole life, either continuously or episodically. Be it related to food, pollen, dust, pets, or many others, it’s quite a pain and it can take us away from many things we appreciate in life. And I deliberately include myself in this group. Somehow it was engraved in my brain as a condition one needs to cope with, without much opportunity for improvement. It turns out companies like Nectar Life Sciences are redefining the way we detect and treat allergies from the comfort of our homes. Based on the latest science in this field, and backed by his extensive experience in consumer healthcare, Kenneth Chahine and his team are transforming the experience of allergy care for patients, offering a convenient and personalized approach to it. In this revealing episode, we talk with Kenneth about: The inconvenience of past approaches to allergy detection and treatment How allergy immunotherapy works and can be delivered through a few drops delivered to the tongue How Nectar Life Sciences enables personalized allergy immunotherapy for patients The transformative power of preventing acute allergic shocks Lessons learned from a serial healthcare entrepreneur at the interface of genetics, biochemistry, and intellectual property A conversation with a tireless figure in healthcare entrepreneurship, shedding light on one of the largest chronic conditions globally and how it can be tackled in a modern way! Timeline: 00:00:00 - Kenneth’s background at the interface of genetics, biochemistry, and intellectual property 00:04:14 - The global burden of allergies as a chronic condition 00:05:53 - Origins of allergies 00:07:49 - Immunotherapy or how to train your immune system to be desensitized to allergens 00:09:43 - Detecting which allergens you are sensitive to 00:11:17 - How Nectar Life Sciences approaches allergy treatment 00:22:11 - Kenneth’s mindset toward solving complex healthcare challenges in new ways 00:26:01 - Opportunities beyond allergy care 00:32:16 - Kenneth’s advice to fellow healthcare entrepreneurs What we also talked about with Kenneth: Avigen Ancestry Anaphylaxis Neurimmune University of Utah We cited with Kenneth some of the past episodes from the series: 15 - Propelling diagnostics through miniaturization - Nicolas Durand - Abionic As mentioned by Kenneth during the episode, you can access Nectar Life Sciences’ Learning Hub here and learn more about Prof. Edwin H. Kim’s research there. Feel free to follow Nectar Life Sciences activities on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok! If you want to contact Kenneth, you can reach out to him over LinkedIn. If you want to give me feedback on the episode or suggest potential guests, contact me over LinkedIn or via email at mathieu@impulsepodcast.com! If you liked the episode, please share it, subscribe to the podcast, and leave a 5-star review on streaming platforms! 🙏 Lastly, don’t forget to follow our activities on LinkedIn and our website!

To discover the whole episode type "#26 - Redefining allergy care - Kenneth Chahine - Nectar Life Sciences" on your streaming platform.

We don’t need to look far in the daily news to understand the stakes and the importance of having efficient solutions to control and stop bleeding. In the times we live in, where the world is crippled by a series of humanitarian catastrophes (some of natural origin, some of human origin), technological wonders from the medical field make me truly hopeful about the future, and about what we can achieve as humans. One of them is the hemostatic gel - a gel that can stop bleeding - that Joe Landolina and his team at Cresilon created. And its astonishing performance is easy to grasp: any bleed can be stopped within three seconds. Compared to traditional methods that require several minutes, it can mean the difference between life and death. There’s so much that impresses in Joe’s journey since the foundation of Cresilon: the fact that he developed the gel formulation himself, that he founded the company at 17 years old in his first year at University, or that Cresilon now represents the largest biotech manufacturing site in New York, and so much more! Beyond these successes, this episode is an ode to biomimicry and the science of biomaterials. Joe reveals everything about the functioning of this revolutionary medical product, its ability to stop bleeding almost instantly, and what it changes in medicine for the treatment of superficial injuries, but especially for the most severe traumatic cases. A surprising encounter with a prodigious entrepreneur, building his path on resilience and adaptability, with the long-term vision to transform bleeding control in humans! Timeline: 00:00:00 - Joe’s background and founding Cresilon in his first year in college 00:06:15 - Cresilon’s mission and the technology at its core 00:08:42 - How the hemostatic gel from Cresilon compares to traditional bleeding control methods 00:10:40 - The explanation behind Cresilon’s hemostatic gel unique performance 00:16:06 - How the gel is applied and removed 00:21:44 - Marketing first the product for veterinary application before moving to human use 00:25:27 - Being the only biotech company with manufacturing capabilities in New York 00:34:15 - Setting up the company to become a large medtech player in the long term What we also talked about with Joe: New York University Columbia University Scar tissue formation Fibrin Extracellular matrix Hurricane Sandy American Veterinary Medical Association Roche Pfizer Cutiss We cited with Joe some of the past episodes from the series: 18 - The dark genome as the next revolution in drug discovery - Samir Ounzain - HAYA Therapeutics Feel free to follow Cresilon’s activities on LinkedIn! You will find here the TED Talk that Joe held in 2015, and here the Medsider podcast episode between Joe and Scott Nelson that we mention in this episode of Impulse. If you want to contact Joe, you can reach out to him over LinkedIn. If you want to give me feedback on the episode or suggest potential guests, contact me over LinkedIn or via email at mathieu@impulsepodcast.com! If you liked the episode, please share it, subscribe to the podcast, and leave a 5-star review on streaming platforms! 🙏 Lastly, don’t forget to follow our activities on LinkedIn and our website!

To discover the whole episode type "#25 - Stopping a bleed in three seconds - Joe Landolina - Cresilon" on your streaming platform.

How would the world look like if men had the most efficient and reversible means of birth control? The outstanding work that L.R. Fox and his team at NEXT Life Sciences are leading might bring a very tangible answer to this question. Based on the pioneering work from Prof. Sujoy K. Guha and The Parsemus Foundation, they are developing one of the most promising male birth control methods medicine has ever known, under the name of Plan A. As an American citizen who has grown under the Foster Care program, Fox (as he likes to be called) has witnessed firsthand the dramatic consequences that unplanned pregnancies can have on individuals and their relatives in the long term. According to him, we have gone quite far already in terms of available options for women and men when it comes to birth control methods. But Plan A could be a revolution in the space, as it is completely hormone-free, painless to deliver and revert, and has an efficacy duration that is way beyond current standards. And most importantly, it can redistribute the heavy responsibility of family planning from women to men. In this episode, we talk about the science behind Plan A, where the technology comes from, how far is it from being available worldwide, and what it would change for society as a whole! A fascinating conversation with a visionary founder, deeply led by the purpose of fostering a positive impact in the world, and with a strong social approach to entrepreneurship! Timeline: 00:00:00 - Fox’s background and how he landed in the field of male contraception 00:06:16 - Experiencing firsthand the consequences of unplanned pregnancies 00:09:34 - The mission of NEXT Life Sciences 00:11:50 - The need, the science, and the functioning of Plan A 00:16:02 - How the Plan A procedure works and gets reverted 00:25:02 - Guaranteeing a 10-year efficacy claim 00:26:56 - Launching the first human clinical trials 00:33:55 - Making it accessible to the broadest population 00:38:17 - The philosophy of Fox and NEXT Life Sciences What we also talked about with Fox: Sexually transmissible diseases (STDs) Condoms Vasectomy Reversible inhibition of sperm under guidance (RISUG) Plan B Public benefit corporation We cited with Fox some of the past episodes from the series: #6 - Bringing back walking to paraplegics - Jocelyne Bloch - .NeuroRestore You can learn more about NEXT Life Sciences through their website, and feel free to follow their activities on LinkedIn! As mentioned by Fox during the episode, you can learn more about Plan A on the dedicated website as well as on Instagram, X, Facebook, and TikTok. If you want to contact Fox, you can reach out to him over LinkedIn. If you want to give me feedback on the episode or suggest potential guests, contact me over LinkedIn or via email at mathieu@impulsepodcast.com! If you liked the episode, please share it, subscribe to the podcast, and leave a 5-star review on streaming platforms! 🙏 Lastly, don’t forget to follow our activities on LinkedIn and our website!

To discover the whole episode type "#24 - Reimagining male contraception - L.R. Fox - NEXT Life Sciences" on your streaming platform.

Wearables are a form of technology that has rapidly become a part of our lives over the past 15 years, with the introduction of devices from Fitbit, Apple, Samsung, and others to the market. Initially informing us about our heart rate and daily step count, they have evolved to incorporate increasingly sophisticated features, allowing us to track our sleep relatively accurately, monitor our overall physical activity, and sometimes even include recognized medical functions (such as the FDA-approved atrial fibrillation detection of the Apple Watch). However, no device of this type allows for real-time quantification of molecules circulating in our blood or other bodily fluids, through optical methods. And that's exactly the challenge that Leo and his team at Spiden have set for themselves: to create the most advanced wearable, capable of continuously and non-invasively measuring multiple biomarkers circulating in our bodies. This could redefine our understanding of our own physiology and change our approach to medicine, by providing insights for the prevention, diagnosis, and monitoring of several conditions, that were previously inaccessible. Since its creation in 2017, Spiden has been operating away from the spotlight, but Leo does us the honor in this exclusive episode to reveal the first secrets behind Spiden’s technology. We discuss its functioning, its initial applications, who the future users will be, and also the incredible team of world-renowned scientists Leo has managed to bring together in the fields of optics, electronic engineering, and machine learning (three fields that were originally completely foreign to him) to achieve his vision. A fascinating conversation about the future of personalized medicine with a bold and successful entrepreneur! Timeline: 00:00:00 - Leo’s background as a serial entrepreneur from fintech to deep tech 00:04:56 - Why Leo found Spiden and works towards improving our health 00:07:14 - The mission of Spiden 00:11:00 - The technology behind Spiden 00:14:47 - The biomarkers that Spiden can track 00:19:02 - Target users of Spiden’s future wearable 00:22:28 - Designing a health-dedicated device 00:24:10 - Attracting world talents in fields you are not initially from 00:34:01 - The importance of in-person interactions in a scientific and multidisciplinary team What we also talked about with Leo: Continuous glucose monitoring (Abbott Freestyle Libre) Bits & Pretzels HealthTech Photoplethysmography (PPG) Biohacking Glucose Goddess Whoop Oura Garmin Huberman Lab induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) We cited with Leo some of the past episodes from the series: #4 - Filtering the blood with nanoengineered beads - Lukas Langenegger - Hemotune #11 - Turning the lab into a wearable platform - Esmeralda Megally - Xsensio #21 - Transforming hypertension care with a bracelet - Jay Shah - Aktiia You can learn more about Spiden through their website. Feel free to follow as well their activities on LinkedIn! As mentioned by Leo during the episode, you can learn about the painful history of non-invasive glucose measurement through the book “The Pursuit of Noninvasive Glucose - Hunting the Deceitful Turkey” by John L. Smith. If you want to get in touch with Leo, feel free to contact him over LinkedIn. If you want to give me feedback on the episode or suggest potential guests, you can contact me over LinkedIn or via email at mathieu@impulsepodcast.com! If you liked the episode, please share it, subscribe to the podcast, and leave a 5-star review on streaming platforms! 🙏 And don’t forget to follow our activities on LinkedIn and our website!

To discover the whole episode type "#23 - Disrupting the smart wearables industry - Leo Grünstein - Spiden" on your streaming platform.