UCD’s LaNua Medical Wins Big Ideas Award at Enterprise Ireland’s Start-Up Day 2024

_{LaNua Medical team members (l-r); Dr Eoin O'Cearbhaill, Dr Cormac Farrelly and Tom Fitzmaurice.}

Dublin, Ireland, 15 May 2024, LaNua Medical, an emerging University College Dublin (UCD) spin-out supported by NovaUCD, was declared the winner of the Big Ideas Competition at Enterprise Ireland’s Start-Up 2024 event in Dublin Castle.

As part of the Big Ideas award, LaNua Medical will now go on represent Ireland at the Pegasus Start-Up World Cup in San Francisco later in the year.

Dr Cormac Farrelly, UCD School of Medicine and a consultant radiologist at the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, and a member of the LaNua Medical team, pitched at the event and was presented with the Big Idea’s Award by Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Peter Burke TD.

LaNua Medical was one of 10 investor-ready potential spin-outs that had three minutes to pitch their new technology solutions to a 600 strong audience made up of representatives from the Irish start-up ecosystem including VCs and other funders, State support agencies & professional and financial services. 

LaNua Medical, an Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation Fund project, is developing solutions for problems in embolization. Embolization is a minimally-invasive procedure that can be used to treat, for example, internal bleeding or benign and malignant tumours. LaNua’s GateKeeper device blocks blood flow to select tissue, while enabling targeted therapeutic delivery aimed at reducing the risk of side effects.

The other members of the LaNua Medical team in addition to Dr Farrelly are; Dr Eoin O'Cearbhaill, Tom Fitzmaurice and Sajjad Amiri, UCD School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering.

LaNua Medical completed the 2022 UCD VentureLaunch Accelerator Programme delivered by NovaUCD.

Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Peter Burke TD said, “I would like to congratulate LaNua Medical, a worthy winner of today’s Big ideas award and I have no doubt will go on to make Ireland proud at the International Start-Up World Cup in the US. Enterprise Ireland’s Start-Up Day offers an exciting snapshot of the future, showcasing investor-ready start-ups with disruptive technologies that will change our world for the better, as well as providing opportunities for keen investors.”

Leo Clancy, CEO, Enterprise Ireland, said, “The Big Ideas pitching element and awards at Start-Up Day provides a platform to showcase Enterprise Ireland’s commercialisation funded research approaching start-up status, with significant potential for success. The event also highlights the accomplishments of our national technology transfer system, the high calibre of research commercialisation activity within Ireland, and the significant impact these companies will have to help solve huge global challenges.

I wish to congratulate LaNua Medical on their achievements to date and wish them every success at the Start-Up World Cup and beyond.”

Enterprise Ireland’s Start-Up Day 2024 event hosted the ‘Class of 2023’ High Potential Start-Up companies that Enterprise Ireland invested in during 2023. The event also played host to technology-based companies with origins deep rooted in ground-breaking research. In 2023, 24 companies were spun-out of third level institutions, 16 of which were supported through the Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation Fund Programme. 

Minister Burke TD continued, “Supporting the commercialisation of research allows us to develop the next generation of innovative High Potential Start-Ups (HPSUs) and last year, 12 HPSUs were successfully generated in partnership with our third level institutions. The government through Enterprise Ireland is committed to supporting the innovative work that is being done in our academic institutions and we look forward to working with these spin- out companies to help them grow and scale.” 

Cristina Purtill, Plio Surgical received the Big Ideas runner-up award on the day and will also travel to San Francisco to attend the Start-Up World Cup.