ABOUT

Tensive is a biomedical startup established in 2012 to develop innovative scaffolds aiming to offer a natural breast reconstruction or augmentation.

Tensive prostheses are based on biodegradable synthetic biomaterials and fabricated with an internal micro-architecture.

Our technology is not yet tested on humans.

OUR MISSION

The loss of a breast can psychologically impact the life of a breast cancer patient.
Tensive’s long-term mission is to restore a natural breast to patients who experienced reconstructive surgery after mastectomy or lumpectomy, to improve their quality of life and avoiding recurrent and expensive surgical operations.

MANAGEMENT

Federico Martello

Federico Martello

Federico Martello, Ph.D. (co-founder; CEO and Chief Operating Officer), has served as Operation Director from the company’s foundation. In the team, Federico’s role comprises relations with investors, client seeking, and general administration. Federico has been also Team Leader of the Advanced Biomaterials platform at Fondazione Filarete for 4 years, where he managed the platform activities and development from 2009 to 2012, bringing the platform to economical sustainability. Before his collaboration with Fondazione Filarete, Federico obtained a PhD in Industrial Chemistry from the University of Milan and the University of Twente (Enschede, The Netherlands). He received his Master of Science in Industrial Chemistry and Management from the University of Milan. Currently, he is involved in an H2020 SME Instrument project as a coordinator. Federico is also the author of ten peer-reviewed articles and is a co-inventor of five international patents.

Alessandro Tocchio

Alessandro Tocchio

Alessandro Tocchio, Ph.D. (co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer), graduated with a Bachelor and Master of Science in Physics Engineering from the Politecnico of Milan. Dr. Tocchio holds a Ph.D. in Medical Nanotechnology from the European School of Molecular Medicine and the University of Milan, and completed his training in nanotechnology and tissue engineering with a postdoc at Stanford University.

Alessandro co-authored 18 peer-reviewed papers and is co-inventor of five patents. Alessandro also co-founded the non-profit organization Organ Preservation Alliance.

Valentina Morigi

Valentina Morigi

Valentina Morigi, MSc (co-founder and CFO) has experience in financial and operational due diligence (buy and sell side) and M&A. She graduated with a bachelor’s in economics from the University of Bologna (incl. 2 semesters in Biology) and a Master in Finance from the Catholic University of Milan. During her Master, she joined the nanomedicine team of the Houston Methodist Research Institute to lead an economic study on the US nanomedicine market. In 2018, Valentina completed the leadership and entrepreneurship Ignite Program at Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.

Previously, Valentina was an Executive at PwC, in the M&A and strategy divisions. She co-founded the Organ Preservation Alliance, a Silicon Valley-based non-profit incubated at NASA - Ames Research Park, where she served as an Executive Director of the Organ Banking Summit.

Valentina was awarded Gifted Citizen and created the Innovation in Biotech and Healthcare blog.

Irini Gerges

Irini Gerges

Co-founder, Chief Technology Officer and R&D Director. She received her Bachelor in Chemistry from Ain Shams University (Egypt); M.Sc in Chemistry from the University of Milan (Italy) and a Ph.D. in biomaterials from the University of Pisa (Italy) Biomolecuar Sciences (BIOS) doctorate school.

She worked as a senior researcher and project coordinator at the Advanced Biomaterials platform of Fondazione Filarete, where she was a key player for the development of biomaterials for implantable medical devices. She was awarded the first prize “women in research” for her research project: biodegradable matrices for soft tissue regeneration. Irini is author of 21 peer-reviewed research articles, 2 academic book chapters and co-inventor of 6 international patents. Her current h-index is 9. Over the past 15 years, Irini gained specific skills in production process customization, synthesis upscaling and intellectual property management. She is coordinating a plurality of research projects with the aim to expand Tensive’s products portfolio.

Margherita Tamplenizza

Margherita Tamplenizza

Margherita Tamplenizza, Ph.D. (co-founder; Chief Regulatory Officer) founded the biological section at the Advanced Biomaterial platform of Fondazione Filarete and she has launched several innovation projects in the field of Life Sciences and Silver Economy for companies associated to Assolombarda, the largest territorial association of the entire entrepreneurial system in Italy. Previously, Margherita has worked in The Interdisciplinary Centre for Nanostructured Materials and Interfaces (CIMaINa) at the University of Milan where she depth her experience on cell-material interaction. She obtained her Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Physiology at the University of Milan and the Paracelsus Medical University of Salzburg (Austria) and she also worked at the University of Innsbruck (Austria) and the Italian Institute for Auxology for biomedicine projects. She trained on Manufacturing of Advanced Therapy Medicinal Product and she obtained her Master degree as Qualified Person of Pharmaceutical Laboratories in 2014. Margherita is an author of 15 peer- reviewed articles and a co-inventor of 4 patents.

Alberto Cantaluppi

Alberto Cantaluppi

Alberto Cantaluppi, MD (Chairman of the Board) is a senior executive with strong background in Medicine, Pharmaceuticals, Medical Devices, Renal Therapy, Diagnostics, Bioscience, Cardiovascular Medicine, and Healthcare Services.
Alberto had full P&L responsibility and holds expertise in Sales and Marketing, Merger and Acquisition Integration, Governmental Affairs and Public Policies, Negotiation, Strategy and Organizational Design, Turnaround, Divestiture, Restructuring, Legal Split, Commissionaire and Toll Manufacturing Model, and Team Dynamics.

ADVISORS

John Greenbaum, MBA

John Greenbaum, MBA

President of Generic Devices Consulting, Inc, a Regulatory Affairs, Clinical Research and Quality Assurance consulting firm specializing in Medical Devices, Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals and Diagnostics. John has 20+ years of successful regulatory consulting experience having brought hundreds of therapeutic and diagnostic products to market, as well as medical devices. He is a seasoned executive, meticulous expert of clinical research operations, studies, and trials with FDA, EU, ISO, and ICH regulations, standards, and guidelines. In his career, John established QA, training, auditing, and standard operating procedures (SOP), liaising across the organization to align operations and trial / study efforts. Prior to founding Generic Devices Consulting, John was Vice President of St. Jude Medical, leading all quality and regulatory functions spanning multiple facilities and focusing on regulatory compliance matters and new product approvals, clinical trial design and performance. In 1992, he founded Metamed, INC and lead it through its acquisition from HealthWatch in 1993 (completed in 1994), where he served as a President and CEO, and brought it through the clinical studies and regulatory approval. Previously, he served as a President and CEO of Colorado MedTech, Inc., guiding the company formation from the merger of RELA and Cybermedic Inc. Prior to that he worked for 9 years at Eli Lilly & Company, in several positions: Director of Product Development, Director of Manufacturing and Engineering and Director of Quality Assurance, Regulatory and Clinical Affairs. John graduated with a Bachelor in Business Administration from Florida International University and an executive MBA at Babson College and Harvard University. He also pursued an executive training in Food and Drug Law at the Food and Drug Law Institute.

Saverio Cinti, MD

Saverio Cinti, MD

Professor at Polytechnic University of Marche (Ancona, Italy), where he coordinates different courses among which the integrated anatomy course at the Medicine and Surgery Degree and the Nourishment Degree. His main research topics are mammalian adipose organ (with brown adipocytes, organogenesis, functional anatomy, plasticity, transdifferentiation), Diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome, Obesity, Nutrition, Insulin Resistance and tissue engineering. He is author of the “Use of isolated mature adipocytes in regenerative medicine for tissue renewal and repair” patent (Italian Patent Deposit MI2008A001464), a book entitled “The adipose organ”, chapters in 13 books, more than 260 original publications on international journals with peer reviewers and he had more than 12,600 citations of the published work (Scopus June 2015 Author ID: 7004604501) with an H index of 51 (Scopus June 2015 Author ID: 7004604501).
The most recent awards received are Friedrich Wassermann Prize European Association for the Study of Obesity (EASO) (2013 - http://www.easo.org/easo) and the selection for the lecture at the world congress of International Federation Associations of Anatomists for the EFEM (European Federation Experimental Morphology) (2014 Beijin - http://www.csas.org.cn/ifaa2014). Dr. Cinti is the worldwide expert in adipose tissue.

Scott Guelcher, Ph.D.

Scott Guelcher, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Vanderbilt University School of Engineering (TN, USA). After completing his B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering at Virginia Tech, Dr. Guelcher worked in the Research Division of Eastman chemical Company in Kingsport, TN on a number of projects in chemical and nutraceutical processing. He subsequently completed his Ph.D. with Professor John Anderson in Chemical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, where his dissertation work focused on investigating the electric field-induced motion of colloidal particles deposited near an electrode. Prior to his appointment at Vanderbilt, Dr. Guelcher was a Senior Associate Scientist in the Polyurethanes Division at Bayer Corporation and an NIH NRSA Fellow in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University where he worked with Professor Jeffrey Hollinger in bone tissue engineering. Professor Guelcher joined Vanderbilt University in 2005, and opened the Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering Laboratory in January 2006. He is author of more than 160 peer-reviewed scientific papers and inventor of 26 patents. Dr. Guelcher is a renown expert in the design, synthesis, and characterization of polymeric biomaterials for bone tissue engineering (with synthetic scaffolds)

Mario Rietjens, MD

Mario Rietjens, MD

Plastic Surgeon: Director of the Division of Reconstructive Surgery at the European Institute of Oncology (IEO). He graduated in Medicine and Surgery at the University do Estado de Sao Paulo (Unesp) of Botucatu (Brazil) and specialized in general oncology surgery at the Pio XII Foundation of Barretos (Brazil). He also graduated and specialized in plastic surgery at the University of Milan. At IEO he performs clinical researches in the field of Plastic Reconstruction Surgery, mainly in the development of new techniques, such as lipofilling, mammal repairing after a reconstructive surgery following removal caused by neoplasy. He is the referent of a clinical study aimed at evaluating the time of degeneration of silicone-gel mammal prostheses according to the time of implant. He participates in a new European study for the development of the use of the stem cells of adipose origin for the mammal repairing after quadrantectomy or mastectomy.

Cristina Lenardi, Ph.D

Cristina Lenardi, Ph.D

Researcher Associate in Physics: Cristina Lenardi is graduated in Physics at the University of Trieste and received her doctorate degree from the Politecnico of Milan. She is researcher at Dept. of Molecular Science Applied to Biosystems of Pharmacy Faculty and at the Center of Excellence CIMaINa of the University of Milan. Since 2009 she is the Head of Advanced Biomaterials platform at Fondazione Filarete. Her area of research focuses on biomaterials microfabrication techniques for the control of cell growth and stimuli aiming to mimic complex biochemistries and geometries of the extracellular matrix. She is author of about 85 papers on peer-reviewed journals, one book and two patents. She received a prize award from the G. Galileo Foundation and the “L. Tartufari” prize awarded by the Lincei National Academy.

Lucio Fumi

Lucio Fumi

Lucio Fumi, MD, is a geriatrician who has worked for over thirty years in the healthcare industry in Italy, Germany, Slovenia, the UK and the Netherlands. Fully registered for Medical Practice in Italy and the UK, Lucio has worked as medical director of international corporations, to include Baxter, Abbott, Terumo and Bristol-Myers Squibb, with pharmaceutical, biotech, clinical nutrition and medical technology products.

In 1998 Lucio set up Wyfold Medical, a consultancy agency dedicated to medical affairs and clinical development for the medical device and biotech industry. As interim manager, Lucio worked as medical director or Chief Medical Officer of BioPheresis, RanD Biotech, Astellas Pharma, Clasado Biosciences, and BTG. More recently he was Chairman of the Board of BetaGlue Technologies (2016-18) and President of the Italian Medical Society of Great Britain (2014-16). 

NEWS & ACHIEVEMENTS

Tensive team received numerous awards from different institutions such as the Chamber of Commerce of Milan, StartCup Milano-Lombardia, ItaliaCamp, Startup dell’Anno, the French Embassy in Italy, Premio Gaetano Marzotto, Intel Global Challenge, Veneto Nanotech, 360 Capital Partners, Unicredit Start Lab Italian Venture Forum and the Italian Education Ministry. Tensive has been also featured on several media channels, including Wired and Forbes. Team members also attended outstanding international programs such as Singularity University, SeedLab, Mind the Bridge School and Startup Revolutionary Road.

19-12-2022

Milan, Italy - December 19th, 2022 - Tensive is awarded by the European Innovation Council Accelerator for its project REGENERA

Tensive S.r.l., the medical technology company pioneering innovative solutions for reconstructive surgery, announces that it is among the 78 winners of the prestigious EIC Accelerator program (October 2022 cut-off). Tensive was awarded blended finance consisting of a € 2.5 million grant and an additional € 6 million in equity investment.

"This award will be crucial to support Tensive in conducting the upcoming clinical trials towards commercialization to bring our revolutionary technology to patients in need", states Alessandro Tocchio, CSO of Tensive.

Tensive was founded in 2012 with the mission to offer breast cancer survivors the option for natural breast reconstruction after lumpectomy, and breast augmentation patients a superior aesthetic outcome through an innovative bio-absorbable implant supporting tissue self-regeneration.

"Our vision is to improve lumpectomy patients' quality of life and restore their femininity, avoiding recurrent, painful and expensive surgical operations", states Valentina Morigi, CFO of Tensive. 

The loss of a breast can cause a negative psychological impact on breast cancer patients beyond the frightening tumor diagnosis. Among other traumatizing consequences, they experience the loss of femininity and breast sensation. "By using a device designed to be gradually degraded in the body over time and safely replaced by the patient's soft tissue, breast cancer survivors will preserve a natural breast aspect", states Margherita Tamplenizza, CQA&RAO of Tensive. 

"Unlike silicone implants and fat grafting, our solution aims to offer a safe, single-surgery option for breast reconstruction with the goal to drastically reduce pain, costs and stress for patients and the healthcare system", states Irini Gerges, CTO of Tensive

"We'd like to thank our team, partners, and quota holders who supported us and worked relentlessly throughout the years towards our ambitious mission," states Alberto Cantaluppi, President of Tensive.

"The award of the EIC Accelerator program represents a further validation of Tensive's vision. We expect that this acknowledgment will enable us to attract additional private investors and venture capitalists to join our company, accelerate market entry, and commercialization", states Federico Martello, CEO of Tensive.

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The EIC Accelerator offers start-ups and SMEs grants of up to €2.5 million combined with equity investments through the EIC Fund ranging from €0.5 to €15 million. In addition to financial support, all projects benefit from a range of Business Acceleration Services that provide access to leading expertise, corporates, investors, and ecosystem actors.

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Links:

EIC announcement:  https://eic.ec.europa.eu/news/european-innovation-council-welcomes-78-high-potential-start-ups-and-smes-highly-competitive-2022-12-19_en

For more information about Tensive: https://www.tensivemed.com

Media Relations: media@tensivemed.com

29-07-2022

La Repubblica published an article citing Tensive's work in breast reconstructive surgery

28-06-2021

Tensive is pleased to announce that our work titled “Conditioning the microenvironment for soft tissue regeneration in a cell free scaffold” has been recently published in Scientific Reports. You can read our work here: https://rdcu.be/cncfX

PUBLICATIONS

Irini GergesMargherita TamplenizzaFederico MartelloStefano KomanGiulia Chincarini, Camilla Recordati, Mariacaterina Tamplenizza, Scott Guelcher, Maurizio Crestani & Alessandro Tocchio  “Conditioning the microenvironment for soft tissue regeneration in a cell free scaffold”. 

You can access the full-text of our paper here: https://rdcu.be/cncfX

I. Gerges, M. Tamplenizza, F. Martello, C. Recordati, C. Martelli, L. Ottobrini, M. Tamplenizza, S. A. Guelcher, A. Tocchio, C. Lenardi.  Exploring the potential of polyurethane-based soft foam as a cell-free scaffold for soft tissue regeneration. Acta Biomaterialia (2018)

E. Rossi*, I. Gerges*, A. Tocchio*, M. Tamplenizza, P. Aprile, C. Recordati, F. Martello, I. Martin, P. Milani, C. Lenardi. Biologically and mechanically driven design of an RGD-mimetic Macroporous Foam for Adipose Tissue Engineering Applications. Biomaterials (2016). (*Authors contributed equally)

C. Schulte; S. Rodighiero; M. A. Cappelluti; L. Puricelli; E. Maffioli; F. Borghi; A. Negri; E. Sogne; M. Galluzzi; C. Piazzoni; M. Tamplenizza; A. Podestà; G. Tedeschi; C. Lenardi; P. Milani. Conversion of nanoscale topographical information of cluster-assembled zirconia surfaces into mechanotransductive events promotes neuronal differentiation. J Nanobiotechnology (2016).

CONTACTS

Registered Office: Via Timavo, 34 20124 Milano (Italy)
Headquarters: Viale Ortles 22/4, 20139, Milano (Italy)
+39 (0) 2 5666 0265

General information: info@tensivemed.com
Careers: careers@tensivemed.com
Media Relations: media@tensivemed.com