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LIFE SCIENCE COMMISSION 2026

The Life Science Commission, the first of five commissions established by UniCredit Start Lab, met on May 6, 2026.

These are the Board Experts who evaluated the 10 Finalist Startups behind closed doors:

• Olivia Alberti, CEO, Diatech Pharmacogenetics
• Laura Antonioli, Head of Medical Affairs, UCB
• Marco Ferrari, CEO, Anemocyte
• Alessandro Foschini, Commercial Director, Roche Diagnostics
• Paolo Rizzardi, Co-Founder, Chairman & CEO, Altheia Science
• Victor Savevski, Chief Innovation Officer and AI Center Director, Humanitas
• Germano Tarantino, Chief Scientific Officer & Board Member, PharmaNutra

The first-prize winning startup is:

Crìa Technologies, is reinventing cold chain logistics by introducing a new class of temperature controlled transport containers for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors, delivering performance up to ten times greater than traditional solutions.This enables safer, longer lasting, and more sustainable transport at refrigerated, ultra‑low, and cryogenic temperatures. 

In Second place: Doctorsa, a global telemedicine platform that connects travelers and expats with English speaking physicians for urgent care via video consultations, typically within a matter of minutes. It enables users to quickly obtain medical advice, prescriptions, and follow up care without having to navigate unfamiliar healthcare or insurance systems abroad. The core element is a real time marketplace in which physicians respond to patient requests with their availability and fee, ensuring rapid access and transparent pricing.

In Third place: CiaoDott. a voice-based artificial intelligence platform designed to address the telephone overload experienced by medical centers, ensuring patients receive consistent, timely, and coherent responses. The solution autonomously manages incoming calls for healthcare facilities and integrates seamlessly with existing practice management software, optimizing operational workflows without requiring changes to current systems.

The other startups that took part in the Commission and are entering the UniCredit Start Lab platform are (in alphabetical order):

Banyan Biotech, is developing two complementary assets in the field of pharmaceutical and biotechnological research and development: LAISA Solution, an intra-articular therapy designed to prevent cartilage degeneration and promote its regeneration in the treatment of osteoarthritis, and Banyan Carrier, a nanovesicular drug delivery platform for sterile and parenteral applications.

Butterfly Decisions is an AI-powered platform for complex decision-making, combining data analysis, epistemic source validation, and scenario simulation to deliver transparent, evidence-based insights across healthcare, pharma, defense, and other high-complexity sectors.

EVE Biofactory, a spin‑off of the Italian National Research Council (CNR), develops nanoalgosomes, extracellular vesicles (EVs) derived from the marine microalga Tetraselmis chuii, through a patented biological nano‑delivery platform designed to be scalable, sustainable, and industrially applicable in the dermocosmetic and pharmaceutical sectors. The startup's mission is to make precision biodelivery an accessible, efficient technology with a reduced environmental footprint.

HEREMOS a digital biomarker discovery platform that transforms high-frequency RAW physiological signals, acquired through medical-grade wearables, into digital biomarkers suitable for regulatory validation (FDA/EMA), with a focus on the objective quantification of pain. HEREMOS digital biomarkers enable continuous, objective, and real-time measurement of the patient's physiological response, making pain, stress, and treatment response quantifiable and reliable clinical endpoints. This approach overcomes the subjective variability of traditional scales, improves the precision of therapeutic efficacy assessment, and reduces time, cost, and risk in clinical trials.

KardioVis has developed PREDICT, a proprietary end-to-end platform that redefines how heart failure is managed. At its core is a portable, non-invasive device that, in just 10 seconds and without skin contact, directly measures cardiac function. Combined with a longitudinal data platform, PREDICT enables the prediction of deterioration up to four weeks before an acute event. Unlike existing solutions, it is based on directly measured clinical parameters, enabling scalable, repeatable, and ultra-low-friction monitoring, with the potential to transform heart failure management and reduce hospitalizations.

Lionhealth Società Benefit sdevelops innovative, patented foods for special medical purposes (FSMPs), specifically designed for patients suffering from malnutrition associated with severe chronic diseases, including chronic inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), rare diseases, oncological conditions, and Alzheimer's disease.

Onaya Biotech is developing an innovative cancer‑on‑a‑chip platform, conceived as a universal simulator of vascularized solid tumors. The device recreates a realistic and controlled three‑dimensional tumor microenvironment in vitro, enabling the culture of patient‑derived tumor cells for the predictive evaluation of personalized therapies, by bridging the gap between traditional preclinical models and clinical outcomes. The platform accelerates drug development and supports the transition toward precision oncology.