From a winning idea to a company of their own. In 2025, Julia Berezutskaya and Nick Ramsey won UMC Utrecht’s Ureka Mega Challenge with their innovation, Alphabet. Through this challenge, UMC Utrecht supports healthcare professionals and researchers in further developing promising ideas and bringing them into practice. One year later, Julia shares how their innovation has progressed and what steps lie ahead.
With Alphabet, assistant professor Julia Berezutskaya, together with professor Nick Ramsey and colleagues, developed a digital solution for patients with locked-in syndrome (ALS, stroke, MS, brain injury). People with this neurological condition are often completely paralyzed but remain fully conscious. They may communicate through eye movements, for example. The technology can also benefit people who are not fully locked-in but have very limited ability to communicate.
Alphabet has since been renamed UCANACT. “As catchy as the name Alphabet was, we couldn’t register our company under that name,” Julia explains. “We wanted the new name to reflect exactly what we stand for: empowering our end users to regain their autonomy and ability to express themselves, on their own terms. It’s simple and clear: U can act.”
“UCANACT is a spin-off from UMC Utrecht that we established to bring the technology behind Alphabet to market,” Julia explains. “We look forward to further developing and commercializing our innovative communication solution, making it available to everyone who needs it.”
Starting a company involves much more than developing the technology itself. That’s why Julia and Nick’s team has been busy over the past year. “We filed our first patent application and learned that the European Patent Office considered our idea highly innovative,” she says.
The team also obtained an exclusive license for intellectual property from UMC Utrecht, registered a trademark, hired its first employees, and completed a pre-seed funding round with LUMO Labs and the Utrecht Holdings Seed Fund. “And we also won the Academic Startup Competition and received the MIT Feasibility Grant!”
It was a special year for Julia, not just professionally but also personally. Amid all these developments, she also became a mother. “The to-do list sometimes seems endless, but we are incredibly grateful for all the good fortune we’ve had throughout our Ureka journey,” she says.
“We are especially grateful to our team members and advisors, the Utrecht BCI Lab, which has supported us every step of the way, and everyone involved in the validation process: patients, their families, clinicians, collaborators, and many others.”
Julia and her colleagues are now fully focused on the hard work ahead. “Building and testing the first complete version of the system that we can bring to market.”
“Thanks to the Ureka Mega Challenge, we’ve gained quite a bit of visibility through various interviews, and it has become an easy conversation starter in the business world,” Julia says. The prize money enabled her team to file the patent application, continue development work, and cover company formation and advisory costs. “That’s a real boost when your company is still at such an early stage.”
On October 16, the final of the 12th Ureka Mega Challenge will take place. As a previous winner, Julia has one final message for the four finalists: “Keep going, be brave, you can do it!”
The Ureka Mega Challenge is a unique innovation competition organized by UMC Utrecht. Innovation is at its heart! People with promising ideas have the opportunity to further develop their research and innovations. In doing so, they contribute to improving healthcare for patients, healthcare professionals, and society. The challenge encourages, facilitates, and partly funds the further development and implementation of promising ideas.
