Abionic

Abionic is a spin-off from the biomedical optics laboratory of EPFL (the ETH twin in Lausanne). It is an allergy diagnostics company developing a point-of-care instrument which can be placed in a doctors office allowing a quick result instead of waiting days for a lab test. From what I can read from papers from the lab, the instrument works on differing diffusion rates of compounds through small channels, and a slower diffusion rate indicates an interaction with whatever is coated in the channel. I'd be really interested to see some standard curves.

Abionic was founded in 2010 and already has ISO 13485 certification for the production of a medical device, which is pretty impressive since I've heard it can take about a year to write out everything. ISO is a quality management standard, meaning that you have quality control checks over all parts of your process (ie you have detailed quality control procedures and methods to ensure they are followed, you have standard procedures for how to change a standard operating procedure, you have methods for checking where problems are if a quality error is reported etc). However, an ISO standard is not how good your product is, just that you produce it consistently. An ISO standard for a medical diagnostics device is important for FDA clearance, a regulatory hurdle that Abionic has already cleared.

And a further note about cutting and pasting on the internet. In some fairly nice documents I've seen a few times this sentence: "The young company has developed a device that can is gaining confidence in the doctor’s office." That can is gaining? What does that even mean. Cut and paste without editing....