“Any biomedical researcher’s goal is for the innovations they discover in the lab to have an impact on clinical practice.”
Judit Cubedo
Judit Cubedo has a PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology from the UB and an MBA, plus 15 years of experience as a researcher working on studies to identify new biomarkers for cardiovascular disease and develop new diagnostic methods. She has published 35 scientific papers, is the co-inventor on 4 patents and has received numerous awards. One of them was from the MIT Technology Review for the invention that led to the company GlyCardial Diagnostics in 2017, where she is now CEO.
GlyCardial Diagnostics is developing a test for early diagnosis of cardiac ischemia, which blocks blood flow to the heart, and to predict patents’ evolution afterwards. The test is based on measuring a novel biomarker and aims to detect cardiac ischemia before it causes irreversible damage to the heart, limiting the disease’s impact on patients. Since it was established in 2017, the company has raised over €5 million in public and private funding, including a €2.4-million round of investment with Caixa Capital Risc and Healthequity and a €1.9-million European SME Instrument Phase 2 project under the H2020 program. The company has also received support from EIT Health, the Ministry of Science and Innovation and ENISA.
Why did you want to be an entrepreneur?
I believe any biomedical researcher’s goal is for the innovations they discover in the lab to have an impact on clinical practice, limiting the impact of diseases. And this is precisely what motivated me to become an entrepreneur.
What is the most important strategic decision you’ve made so far?
The idea started more than 12 years ago as a research project. Since the company was established, I have seen very clearly the need to incorporate external profiles, to enrich it with ‘fresh’ points of view that didn’t participate in the history of the research. And it is these new additions who have helped grow the project, making it their own, and have now become an integral part of it.
What is the best advice you’ve ever been given?
When you do biomedical research, you have to change your mentality and realize that the results of your research could make a difference. Understand that you can play an active role in the transition the project has to go through so it can be transferred to market. In my case, someone advised me to take this path back in the day and I’m very happy that I did.
And now what? What milestones do you want to achieve in the short term?
To finish the prospective international multi-center clinical study we began in 2019 to validate our new biomarker. We hope to have the results towards the end of 2021. Plus, we hope to advance and establish the next steps to take in a new, very interesting line of research that we began these first years of the company.
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