We are automating tissue sectioning.
Kaskaraa Instruments is a Montreal company founded in 2025. We are building an instrument that cuts tissue blocks into sections for diagnosis, the one step in the histology lab still done entirely by hand. The device is in prototype.
Work with usThe problem
Nearly every cancer diagnosis passes through a histology lab. Tissue is embedded in paraffin, cut into sections a few microns thick, mounted on glass, stained, and read under a microscope. The cutting is done by a technologist at a rotary microtome, one block at a time, on a design that has not fundamentally changed since the 1880s.
- 2.04M
- new cancer cases projected in the United States in 2025
- American Cancer Society
- 20.5%
- vacancy rate in histology laboratories
- ASCP 2024 Vacancy Survey
Case volume is rising while the people who cut the blocks retire faster than they are replaced. Labs cover the gap with overtime and send-outs, turnaround gets longer, and somewhere a patient is waiting on the result.
Where we are
- 2025-08-15
- Kaskaraa Instruments incorporated in Montreal.
- 2025
- Joined District 3 Innovation Centre at Concordia University.
- 2025
- Profiled in La Presse.
- 2025
- Partnered with ThinkSci Outreach on STEM programming in Montreal and Ottawa.
- Now
- Prototype in development. Weekly conversations with pathology labs and university groups.
- Next
- A prototype we can put on a lab bench in front of a histotechnologist.
Who we want to hear from
Pathology laboratories
If you run or work in a histology lab, we would like an hour of your time. We need to understand your workflow now, and we will need pilot sites later.
Universities and students
We collaborate with university labs and take on student researchers in mechatronics, computer vision, and pathology.
Investors
We are raising a pre-seed round. Deck on request.
Team
- Nathan Aruna Founder, research and development. Electrical engineering student.
- Domenico Valentino Co-founder, software. Software engineering student.
- Raphael Ethier Co-founder, hardware. Aerospace engineering student.
- Majed Munazzit Co-founder, business and clinical. Ten years in pathology lab operations.