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Master's in Bioscience Enterprise |
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| University of Cambridge > Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology > Institute of Biotechnology > Masters in Bioscience Enterprise |
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News
March 2009 Adnan Iqbal and Kelly Karns (MBE Alumni 2008), co-founders in 2008 of AutoTB during their MBE studies, scooped first prize in the 11th Annual UC Berkeley Business Plan Competition Finals, hosted by the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation. “What a great night! Fantastic students, great ideas, solid business opportunities!" said Jerry Engel, executive director of the Lester Center. "AutoTB brings rapid diagnosis, and therefore rapid treatment to challenged populations that suffer from the scourge of Tuberculosis. Winning the UC Berkeley Business Plan Competition not only gives AutoTB some seed financing, but more importantly brings them to the attention of the venture community that will help them scale into a global enterprise.” February 2008 Following a Gala Evening at the London Guildhall, Professor Chris Lowe and a delegation of staff and students representing taught and research graduate programmes were introduced to Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace on 14 February. Professor Lowe was presented with the Queen’s Anniversary Award, in recognition of the Institute’s innovative, internationally recognised, model that integrates multidisciplinary research, business training and commercial exploitation. This has led to the formation of a number of promising spin-off companies that have brought a range of patented products to market including next generation glucose sensors and new drugs for treatment of cancer. The activity is underpinned by a uniquely structured Masters course in Bioscience Enterprise. The Queen's Anniversary Prizes are awarded biennially to institutions of higher and further education for work of exceptional quality that brings benefit to the wider community, as well as to the institution itself and its student body.
February 2007 Following the success of the MBE 06-07 class in the Cambridge business ideas competition, where they scooped four of the ten prizes on offer, two of the winning teams were selected for the match with Oxford. The competition, judged by Peter Jones of Dragons’ Den and Martha Lane-Fox, founder of Lastminute.com, will be broadcast on ITV later in the year. The overall winner of the competition with a prize of £5,000 was TouchSight from Cambridge, who have developed a unique mobility aid for the blind and visually impaired. The glove-based system, the Touchsight Vision Mitt, enables the user to ‘sense' their surroundings using ultrasonic sensors and vibration feedback actuators, providing a low cost alternative or supplement to guide dogs or white sticks. Runner-up prize of £2500 went to the MBE programme’s RemRom Medical Devices, that specialise in the manufacturing, marketing and distribution of path-breaking medical devices designed for surgery through the mouth (minimally invasive surgery or MIS). Neoheal, another MBE entry was also successful in reaching the top four and gave a superlative pitch, fielding the tough questions from the judges about their application of nanotechnology to promote tissue repair and wound recovery.
February 2007 This year's Cambridge University Entrepreneurs (CUE) £1k Business Ideas Competition came to a fitting and climactic conclusion on 24 January 2007 with the £1k Awards Ceremony. Held in the grandeur of Cambridge's Guildhall, the awards attracted over 200 students, staff and sponsors to network, browse the 86 ideas entered, and hear the 10 winners announced. The winning ideas were diverse, from automatic data backup to pest control to industrial sensing. Four of the £1k winners, Azadigm, ChitoSci Solutions, NeoHeal and RemRom Medical Devices, were from the Master's of Bioscience Enterprise course. A full list of winners may be found at www.cue.org.uk. Each winning team received £1,000 cash to spend how they please. Every team also received valuable feedback from CUE's expert team of judges and were invited to enter their idea into the first stage of CUE's business creation competition, in which prizes totalling £30,000 will be awarded to the winners. "In keeping with the Cambridge entrepreneurial ethos, Azadigm evolved out of a conversation one evening between a member of the MBE class and a chemistry PhD student," said Lisa Bate, an MBE student who won with Azadigm. "Having won, we are looking forward to the challenge of the 3P competition later this term. "Dan Bernad, who won with NeoHeal, said, "When I was studying medicine at the University of Ottawa, I used to think of ways to improve the fundamental surgical tools I observed or used. [Our team] plans to further develop our product so we can help patients mend faster, recover without infection, and heal with minimal scarring. "Dr Shrinivas Rao Mukku, another MBE student who won with ChitoSci Solutions, said, "It is a great feeling to have won the CUE competition. The joy is doubled to see that out of ten, four were teams from MBE!" "This is a truly record year for Cambridge University Entrepreneurs," said Rahul Vohra, President of Cambridge University Entrepreneurs. "There is unprecedented excitement about the competitions: we received 33% more entries than in any previous year and as a result the competition was extremely tough. We simply can't wait to see the ideas which enter the CUE business creation competition." CUE would like to thank and congratulate everyone who entered. Especial thanks go to the Gold Sponsors: Greater Cambridge Partnership, PA Consulting, Cambridge Angels, 3i, ARM and Filemot, and to all our other sponsors, for their continued and invaluable support. October 2006
Gerhard Symons, Managing Director of Camstent Limited, was recently awarded the second prize in the 2006 European Young Entrepreneur Awards by European Union Commissioner for Scientific Research, Janez Potočnik. Gerhard Symons received the award at the Innovact Congress for Innovative Growth Companies, which was held at Reims, France from 18-19 October. Gerhard received the award in recognition of his activities with Camstent, his company that is commercializing a non-stick coating technology for coronary artery stents, to prevent late-stage thrombosis in patients with coronary artery disease, the number one killer in the Western World.
Over 300 companies took part in the competition and 30 finalists were invited to the Congress. During his acceptance speech Gerhard Symons noted “Camstent Limited is committed to benefiting patients using our technology. This award helps to validate our business idea at the very highest level in Europe and is recognition for all the hard work that the team has dedicated to the business. Winning this prestigious award raises our profile and will help us reach our next goal of obtaining seed investment to take the business forward.” For more information visit: www.innovact.com September 2006 Professor Lowe has always maintained a very strong interest in creating a seamless interface between academia and industry. He has been responsible for spinning out 8 companies employing over 200 people and which are currently estimated to be worth in excess of £500M. The companies include: Prometic Biosciences Inc.; Affinity Sensors; Cambridge Sensors; Purely Proteins; Lumora Ltd; Smart Holograms; Psynova and Bright Solutions. He holds a number of non-executive directorships and actively promotes the entrepreneurial ethos within the University and wider community. He has overall responsibility for and teaches on the unique and highly over-subscribed Master’s in Bioscience Enterprise course at the Institute of Biotechnology. For more information visit: www.enterprise.ac.uk July 2006 i10 is a collaborative initiative between 11 higher education institutions in the East of England that seeks to forge stronger links between the affiliated Colleges and Universities and business. i10 acts as a central point of contact for businesses interested in finding out how they can benefit from the wealth of expertise, innovation and research services at each of these universities. The Innovators competition was launched in March 2006 and attracted entries from across the region. Selected companies were invited to an entrepreneurship boot camp in July, where they received intensive training on the key aspects of starting a business. For more information visit: www.i10.org.uk June 2006 Students and staff of the MBE programme were delighted to welcome members of the biotech business community to the Graduation Dinner, held at Trinity Hall College, to celebrate the conclusion of the 2005-06 academic year. Distinguished guests included Dr Peter Chambre, until recently CEO of Cambridge Antibody Technology Group (CAT) and who was responsible for the company in the years preceding its recent much-publicised acquisition by AstraZeneca. The convivial evening commenced with a reception by the River Cam, enhanced by the evening sun, and was followed by dinner in the College. During his address, Dr Chambre described the highlights of his career and his personal motivations for pursuing a career in drug discovery. He noted that CAT and AstraZeneca have a track record of working together, having commenced a major strategic alliance in late 2004 to discover and develop human antibody therapeutics, principally in inflammatory disorders. The excellent progress of the alliance demonstrated the power of combining the capabilities of both organisations. The acquisition of CAT by AstraZeneca represents the next logical step in the successful development of CAT, which will continue to be a major international presence in the research and development of biological therapeutics. During the course of the evening a presentation was made to Professor Simon Barnes, who this year concludes his tenure as MBE Programme External Examiner. Professor Chris Lowe, Director of the Institute of Biotechnology, gratefully acknowledged the expertise of both academia and industry that Simon had brought to this role and thanked him for his admirable enthusiasm and diligence and his interest in the development of the course and students alike. Simon Barnes is soon to take up a new role with Tate & Lyle Ventures, managing an investment fund focused on developments in the food industry. June 2006 Dr Martyn Postle, Managing Director of Cambridge Healthcare and Biotechnology Ltd, generously sponsored the 2nd Annual MBE Programme Symposium, at which students presented the findings of their internship activities to an audience that included staff, fellow students, business guests and programme examiners. The event was held at The Nucleus, Chesterford Research Park, where the biotech business surroundings proved to be a fitting setting for the final business activities of the class of 2005-06. An impressive range of internship activities had been undertaken by the students and the conclusions drawn from their work provided fascinating insights of the business activities of the host companies. May 2006 In recent years the MBE Programme has enjoyed unrivalled success in the CUE competitions and this year was no exception. Bunot, founded by two MBE one other student, won the top prize in the ‘People, Plant, Productivity’ competition and Camstent was one of three winners in the ‘50K Business Creation’ competition. Bunot Co. team members Reynaldo Garcia, Charles Conrad Uy and Lilybeth
Go aim to develop a soil erosion control net made from waste coconut husks.
With the Philippines' rich coconut resources, the company aims to become
the world's leading producers of coconet, with a highly improved production
capacity starting with the growing demand of the Chinese market. This
enterprise is environmentally friendly and will benefit the coconut farmers
in the poor rural areas of the Philippines by generating revenue in the
rural economy and providing new livelihood opportunities. For more information visit: www.cue.org.uk |
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