Pregnolia wins Venture Kick Competition

Congratulations to the Pregnolia team: They won the Venture Kick competition 2016 and receive CHF 130'000.

Solving the problem of preterm birth assessment

The ETH spin-off Pregnolia develops a diagnostic tool that measures the cervical stiffness in pregnant women, allowing to reliably identify the ones at risk of preterm birth. The probe of the tool is put vaginally on the uterine cervix and measures the stiffness of the tissue in only a few seconds. If the uterine cervix proves soft, the gynecologist adopts pregnancy conservatory measures. A typical measure is a hormone therapy with a class of hormones, Gestagen, which stiffens the tissue. Or a so called "cerclage", where a sustaining strap is slung around the uterine cervix.

Solving the long-standing problem of preterm birth risk assessment and management in pregnancy is a step which CEO Sabrina Badir chose to make in 2015 with co-founder Francisco Delgado. Their start-up Pregnolia won several awards, among them in May 2016 the V.A. de Vigier prize of CHF 100'000.-- Watch movie. The Swiss market entry is planned in 2018, then Europe and the USA.

Former Co-Me project

The technology was developed within the National Centre of Competence in Research NCCR Co-Me at the Institute for Mechanical Systems, Prof. Edoardo Mazza. Read more