OUTLOOK
24 June 2021

The Spinoff Prize: Ones to watch

Here are ten university spin-offs that just missed making the final eight in the 2021 Spinoff Prize competition, but are worth keeping an eye on.

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Ones to watch

Company	University	Location	Key development	Founded
ABOzymes Biomedical	University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada	Vancouver, Canada	An enzyme additive to turn all donated blood into type O, making it suitable for transfusion into a person with any blood type	October 2020
Axolotl Biosciences	University of Victoria, Canada	Victoria, Canada	A bioink for printing 3D models of tissue derived from human cells	March 2020
EarlySight	Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland	Lausanne, Switzerland	An optical device that shines light on the white of the eye to detect abnormalities that indicate early stages of eye disease	May 2019
GlycoVue	University of Cambridge, UK	Cambridge, UK	Contact lenses and smartphone application that monitor glucose levels in the tear fluid of people with diabetes	May 2019
Medo	University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada	Edmonton, Canada	A 3D ultrasound augmented with artificial intelligence to diagnose hip dysplasia in infants	December 2019
Melio	University of California, San Diego	Santa Clara, California	A blood test that identifies many common bacterial, fungal and viral pathogens in newborn babies in less than three hours	February 2018
PanCryos	University of Copenhagen	Copenhagen, Denmark	A stem-cell therapy that replaces damaged insulin-producing cells in people with type 1 diabetes, allowing the regulation of blood glucose levels	October 2017
Rappta Therapeutics	Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio	Helsinki, Finland	Small-molecule drugs that treat cancer by reactivating the tumour suppressor PP2A protein	March 2019
Salutech	University Health Network, Toronto, Canada	Toronto, Canada	A conductive biomaterial to treat the heart condition atrial fibrillation without damaging the heart tissue	December 2018
Volexion	Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois	Chicago, Illinois	A graphene coating that protects the cathodes of lithium-ion batteries from degradation, resulting in increased battery power and durability	May 2018

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-01669-6

This article is part of Nature Outlook: The Spinoff Prize 2021, an editorially independent supplement produced with the financial support of third parties. About this content.