Mirai Medical has secured €7.2 million in funding from Ireland’s Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund (DTIF) to lead the PIONEER program, which aims to develop a new minimally invasive treatment for colorectal cancer. The funding is part of DTIF Call 7, which represents a total investment of €159 million across various sectors including healthcare and artificial intelligence. The DTIF is managed by the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment with support from Enterprise Ireland.
The PIONEER initiative will focus on advancing Mirai Medical’s ePORE therapy platform. This technology uses non-thermal pulsed field ablation (PFA) to target cancerous tissue while preserving healthy tissue, potentially reducing the need for radical surgery in patients with colorectal cancer.
Mirai Medical will coordinate a consortium that includes Deciphex, Eurofins, Trinity College Dublin, University of Galway, University College Dublin, and St. James’s Hospital in Dublin. These partners bring expertise in digital pathology, molecular diagnostics, oncology research, and clinical implementation.
Dr. Declan Soden, CEO and Founder of Mirai Medical, stated: “This award marks a major step forward in our mission to deliver new, minimally invasive treatment options for patients with colorectal cancer. As lead partner on PIONEER, we are bringing together a unique combination of clinical, engineering and diagnostic expertise to advance PFA toward routine clinical use in the GI tract. This investment gives us a clear pathway to accelerate development and move closer to offering patients an organ-preserving alternative to radical surgery.”
The PIONEER program will support translational research as well as preclinical and clinical studies of the ePORE technology. The goal is to introduce this treatment option both within Ireland and internationally.
