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LASER 2025: Hamamatsu reveals innovation prizewinners

26 Jun 2025

Minos Biosciences, Coher Sense, and ZuriQ win 'pilot-line' support at inaugural ceremony.

A trio of photonics-related startups will receive a combination of €10,000 cash, promotional support, and pilot-line expertise from Hamamatsu Photonics, after being revealed as the winners of the Japanese firm’s new innovation awards.

In a ceremony at the LASER World of Photonics trade show in Munich this week the Swiss quantum computing firm ZuriQ, German laser sensor developer Coher Sense, and French cell analysis company Minos Biosciences claimed the prizes, beating competition from six other finalists across three separate categories.

Prior to revealing the winners, the Hamamatsu team outlined their “pilot line” support scheme, which is intended to help partners transfer their photonic module concepts into marketable products ready for mass production.

The approach takes advantage of Hamamatsu’s expertise across a huge variety of light sources and photodetectors, with the firm’s enormous range of components able to cover large portions of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Andrey Voloshin and Frank Tobias from the company’s European operation outlined the thinking behind the pilot-line concept, the latter pointing out that two-thirds of Hamamatsu’s 15000-strong product lineup was made up of custom-specific designs, before introducing the winners.

Innovation and societal impact
ZuriQ, whose quantum computing approach relies on trapped ion qubits controlled using lasers, won in the “innovation” category. Earlier this year the startup, a spin-out from ETH Zurich, attracted $4.2 million in venture funding to help develop a radical new architecture that it hopes will finally break through the qubit scaling barrier.

Speaking during the ceremony ZuriQ’s CEO Pavel Hrmo explained that the company was taking advantage of passive waveguide technology, and hoped to have a market-ready product in 3-4 years.

Taking the award in the “advanced feasibility” category, Lübeck-based Coher Sense was recognized for its compact laser multimeter.

Named “KISA”, the technology is intended to democratize laser metrology, with CEO Oliver Lischtschenko saying that the Hamamatsu prize would help it to scale manufacturing and reduce product costs. Coher Sense is exhibiting the compact and portable units, which measure laser power (up to 100 mW), wavelength, and bandwidth simultaneously, at this week’s event.

The third prizewinner, France-based Minos Biosciences, won in the “impact on society” category. Established in 2020, it has developed a novel approach to cell analysis it claims will “open new frontiers in life sciences research, drug discovery, and development and precision medicine”.

Citing applications in cancer patients who become resistant to their drug treatment pathways, CEO Pierre Le Ber described the complications of combining DNA and cell analysis, explaining that the company’s approach relied on microfluidic technology combining image-based, dynamic functional monitoring and sequence-based molecular profiling of individual or multiple cells at high throughput.

The Paris-based firm is ultimately aiming to deliver a range of high-impact assays run on its own benchtop instrument, with further applications anticipated in autoimmune disorders and the treatment of infectious diseases.

Following the inaugural awards, Hamamatsu said that it was planning to hold another edition of the competition, with the winners to be revealed at the next LASER World of Photonics event, in 2027.

AlluxaNyfors Teknologi ABHamamatsu Photonics Europe GmbHUniverse Kogaku America Inc.CHROMA TECHNOLOGY CORP.SPECTROGON ABPhoton Lines Ltd
© 2025 SPIE Europe
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