ORIGINAL ARTICLE, schulich.owo.ca, October 2021

As the CEO of Tenomix, a medical technology company creating innovative solutions in pathology, Saumik Biswas, PhD’20, caught the attention of Business London.

The local business publication’s annual ‘Twenty in their 20s’ list profiles the best and brightest in London – and Biswas certainly fits the bill.

A recent PhD graduate in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, he quickly earned a Medical Innovation Fellowship with WORLDiscoveries: a research commercialization office created by Western University, the Shulich School of Medicine & Dentistry and Lawson Health Research Institute.

There, he met pathologist Dr. Matthew Cecchini, who was looking for an improved way to look for lymph nodes in colon cancer tissue. Inspired by Cecchini’s problem, he founded Tenomix, and began developing a bench-top robotic scanning device that will facilitate efficient and reliable lymph node collection to accurately understand cancer spread.

As a translational scientist stepping into the business world, Biswas says he’s been able to draw many parallels between the two roles. He has working knowledge of how research is implemented in practice, and the potential bottlenecks.

“I’ve had the opportunity to practice clear communication techniques with stakeholders with diverse scientific and non-scientific backgrounds, manage projects and develop a high tolerance for ambiguity.”

When asked about the best part of his career, he told Business London, “[It’s] being able to do innovative work with a great team of like-minded individuals, while also having the opportunity to apply my creative problem-solving skills to specific challenges on a daily basis.”

Biswas’ goal is to have a market-ready device by 2024, and to expand his company’s innovations in the pathology sphere.