Ville Pimenoff joins Aqsens Health’s team
Ville joins Aqsens as the VP of Clinical Research and Validation.
Aqsens Health’s year began with an important new member joining our team – Ville Pimenoff starts as the VP of Clinical Research and Validation for Aqsens Health. Ville has a well-established career in academia, and now he’s ready to venture into the fast-paced world of start-ups and healthtech research and development.
First connections
Ville has an extensive academic background as a researcher, currently at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden. His expertise lies in virology, bioinformatics, microbiology and pathogen genomics. In addition, during the pandemic he has been a consultant for Finland’s Prime Minister’s Office’s COVID-19 report. Now he’s combining his academic career with the world of health tech.
Ville’s road to Aqsens Health is interesting. He had just returned to the Nordics after 10 years of cancer research in Spain to conduct research on monitoring human exposures to different environmental factors, foreign substances, and viruses and bacteria. Then the pandemic started, and brand new research focuses quickly came into the picture.
“The research naturally turned to COVID-19 exposure dynamics, both out of necessity but also out of my own interest,” he recounts.
Soon after, large Nordic research and collaboration cohorts were formed, and this is how Ville and Aqsens Health’s CEO Timo first connected and started to discuss possible collaboration on future projects.
Combining the academic and start-up worlds
In recent years, the world of academic research has become more and more collaborative, and more often than not researchers partner up with companies or organizations. This wasn’t the case a few decades ago.
“The world of academic research has become more intertwined with the world of start-ups and entrepreneurship, whereas before they were considered two totally separate fields. I think the development makes sense, because research is full of incredible innovation,” Ville explains.
“Here in the north, this ecosystem is especially active, and when I returned to the Nordics I noticed many of my colleagues who I had known for years had seamlessly combined their academic careers with the start-up world. So when I learned about the Aqsens team and the solid idea behind the company’s technology, I really didn’t have to think twice,” he continues.
Aqsens Health and Ville’s collaboration began unofficially in 2021, and Ville has been a significant part of Aqsens Health’s malaria project for almost a year already.
“During the years I’ve had several collaborative research projects in Africa. So when Aqsens Health’s malaria screening project came up, I was very excited,” Ville recounts.
He accompanied CEO Timo and Head of Laboratory Vilhelmiina to Ghana in late 2021 to discuss the partnership with the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, and looks forward to the next steps of the project.
“Our AQ MOBI screening platform is innovative and very important, particularly now that the first malaria vaccination has just been approved for use. Large-scale vaccine implementations ideally need a follow-up screening to succeed. A “low-tech” solution that can give high quality results on site is an invaluable tool in helping in malaria management,” he continues.
Ville’s expectations and hopes for the future at Aqsens
In addition to the malaria research project Ville is also excited about the ongoing cancer research projects and the possibilities they could bring in the future.
“At Aqsens we’re interested in the kinds of cancers where the cancer mechanics and risk factors are not as well understood, like prostate or colorectal cancer. Human microbiome, a research topic I have been involved with for years, was thought to likely reveal the links to the diseases. However, the prevalence of these cancers has been on the rise, and we still don’t have accurate enough diagnostics or understanding of the risk factors related to these cancers,” Ville explains.
“What I want to see us do next, is to get connected with new collaborators from around the world to validate our method in different test environments and with different ethnic groups. I’m eager to see how this project will progress in 2022.”
Another aspect that Ville looks forward to is the possibility to see a research project or an innovation make a concrete difference in the world.
“For me the fact that research won’t end in the publication of a research paper, but will continue and could potentially make a difference in the real world is very fascinating. I look forward to what our excellent team can deliver in the coming years,” he says.
During the past year, the Aqsens Health team has been able to get to know Ville and Ville has also got to know the team more closely. Both are excited to continue working together on the ongoing projects as well to begin to look into new research and development possibilities.
“After a year of working together with Aqsens, I want to emphasize the incredible team we have. Our team consists of experts with different backgrounds, which is a fantastic environment for innovative interactions. What’s more, our concept and methodology is very adaptable, and we have many possibilities and ideas we could try with this technology. And with this team, I think we’ll have no problems moving forward,” Ville concludes.
