Trinity spin-out wins international investment pitch with innovative wound closure device

Starling Surgical, a medical device technology in development at Trinity College Dublin has won the International Medtech Investment Pitch Event with MedTech Innovator at the MedTech Strategist Innovation Summit Dublin 2019.

Led by NHS surgeon, Dr Cyrus Doctor, Starling Surgical is developing the optimum wound closure device that will provide superior results to meticulously perform surgical sutures at the speed and convenience of a skin stapler.  Dr Cyrus Doctor is collaborating with Dr Travis Davis, Dr Ciaran Simms and Dr Bruce Murphy at the Trinity Centre for BioEngineering, with financial support from Enterprise Ireland and the EU EIT Health fund. The product was first envisaged for the EI Cleveland Clinic Innovation Award Programme when Dr Cyrus Doctor was based at NUI Galway following a fellowship at BioInnovate.

The International qualifying round of the Medtech Innovator’s Showcase and Accelerator programme took place at RCSI on April 8th 2019 and featured pitches from 30 of the best-in-class medical device, diagnostic, and digital health companies in the region. In addition to pitching to a panel of judges, the attendees had the opportunity to network with MedTech Innovator partners, including investors, providers, and key industry executives. This event was one of a number of outreach activities under the Trinity -  RCSI Knowledge Transfer Consortium, an initiative supported by Knowledge Transfer Ireland and Enterprise Ireland under the Technology Transfer Strengthening Initiative Phase 3 (TTSI3).

Starling Surgical was one of five projects that progressed to the April 9th ‘Pitch Event Final’ at the Medtech Strategist Innovation Summit in the Shelbourne Hotel.  Remarkably, another Trinity spin-out prospect, Head Diagnostics, with ground-breaking technology in the area of brain injury and sports-concussion diagnosis, reached the final too.  Head Diagnostics’ iTremor device is also an Enterprise Ireland-supported programme led by David Van Zuydam in collaboration with Trinity inventors Dr Gerard Boyle and Dr Mindaugas Norkus of the Biomedical Engineering group at MISA, St. James’s Hospital, Dublin.

Each year, MedTech Innovator selects the industry’s most promising medical technology start-ups and emerging growth companies, matching them with healthcare leaders for mentorship and support. In 2019, MedTech Innovator will select 50 start-ups for participation in its programme and will award more than $500,000 in cash and in-kind prizes during its competition.

Starling Surgical will now have the opportunity to present at the accelerator’s regional pitch events taking place across the United States and internationally. They will be engage with more than 150 executives and professionals from dozens of leading companies, including manufacturers, providers, and investors such as Amgen, Baxter, BTG, Fujikura, HOYA Corp, Johnson & Johnson, Maxim Integrated Products, NIPRO Medical Corp., Olympus Medical Systems Group, RCT Ventures, W.L Gore & Associates, Inc., and many more.

Dr Cyrus Doctor said: “At some point in their lives, almost everyone is going to need an operation where the wounds are usually closed with sutures or staples. Both have major disadvantages. The QuickStitch will be the fastest, safest and most clinically effective way of closing wounds, resulting in the reduction of infection rates and pain and improving the cosmetics of a scar. We are delighted to have won this award, especially considering how incredible the competition was from around the world. Getting through to the accelerator programme will give the project much-needed corporate support and has already led to investors and multinationals reaching out to us. We’re very grateful and look forward to competing in the upcoming Medtech Innovator events in the US and around the world.”

More information on Starling Surgical can be found here: https://www.starlingsurgical.com/

More information on MedTech Innovator can be found here: https://medtechinnovator.org/

This release was first published 12 April 2019 by Trinity College Dublin.