Early Bird

We are pleased to announce that Lumito AB and Katana Labs have signed a letter of intent to combine Lumito’s scanning-as-a-service solution with Katana’s state-of-the-art cloud platform, designed for the visualization and analysis of whole slide images. This partnership will enable researchers to stain and scan tissues with the highly sensitive SCIZYS system from Lumito while reviewing and analyzing the resulting images on Katana’s intuitive cloud platform.Together, we aim to lower barriers, increase adoption rates, and drive innovation in biomarker analysis.

Stay tuned for more updates!

Press release

A highly inspiring Business Roundtable took place in Berlin on 8th of September, marking a significant milestone in fostering international collaboration between Saxony’s thriving life sciences ecosystem and Saudi Arabia. Organized by biosaxony, the roundtable featured an esteemed Saudi Arabian delegation led by His Excellency Khalid bin Abdulaziz Al-Falih, Minister of Investment, and Her Excellency Sara Al Sayed, Deputy CEO of the Saudi Investment Promotion Authority.

The event brought together key stakeholders to explore future opportunities for investment, research, and development in the life sciences sector. One of the event’s notable participants was Katana Labs, represented by Falk Zakrzewski, showcasing the company’s innovative AI solutions for cancer diagnostics.

“It was an honor to be part of such an impactful event and to represent Katana Labs at this important meeting,” said Falk Zakrzewski. “Saxony’s world-class life sciences ecosystem, from cutting-edge research to groundbreaking companies and a robust clinical network, was on full display. This event laid the foundation for exciting future collaborations between our region and Saudi Arabia.”

In cancer diagnostics, the decision as to whether a cancer is benign or malignant lies in the hands of the pathology department, where the tissue is examined manually using a microscope. However, increasing numbers of cases and a lack of specialist staff are leading to a fatal bottleneck, which the Dresden-based start-up Katana Labs wants to solve with its PAIKON platform: a digital microscope that uses artificial intelligence to analyze millions of tumor cells in a tissue sample in just a few moments. The innovation was awarded the Life Sciences Cluster Prize of the 20th IQ Innovation Award Central Germany at the award ceremony in Merseburg Cathedral on Thursday evening.

“This innovation is a perfect example of how artificial intelligence can help us tackle the major challenges of our time. Staff shortages are not only a problem in the healthcare system, but here they can have dramatic consequences. The Katana Labs platform can process much more information than a human being, relieving the pressure on tight pathology workflows and providing a much broader basis for decision-making in seconds. The founding team is convincing in its claim to revolutionize the diagnosis of the number one widespread disease and also to open up completely new possibilities in research,” said Jörn-Heinrich Tobaben, Managing Director of Metropolregion Mitteldeutschland Management GmbH, explaining the jury’s decision. Endowed with 7,500 euros, the cluster prize was donated by IDT Biologika GmbH.

Official Press Release (in German)
Article on 20th IQ Innovation Award (in German)

We at Katana Labs are immensely proud that Prime Minister of Saxony Michael Kretschmer supports our work in developing AI for cancer diagnostics and finds our approach as a startup particularly exciting.