Manchester Teams Triumph in Competition to be Biotechnology stars of the future

Thursday 01st November, 2007

Two Manchester teams have won places in the final of a national competition to find the entrepreneurial bioscientists of the future.

Joint winning teams, Optdermis and Futurzyme, beat off stiff competition from 16 other teams from universities and institutes around the UK in the Biotechnology Young Entrepreneurs Scheme (Biotechnology YES) 2007 competition. They will fly the flag for the North West in December in London where the winner will collect £1000.

Johanna Donovan, James Kean, Laura Pointing, Morven Cameron and Alex Davies of Optdermis proposed a device that is inserted into the nose to prevent allergens affecting the human body. Maeve O’Neill, Matt Truppo, Ian Roles, Valeria Barattini and Sarah Whitehead of Futurzyme, came up with a cost effective method for screening bio-transformations.

Maeve O’Neill of Futurzyme said: “The University of Manchester Incubator Company (UMIC) gave us good advice about learning the principles of biotechnology and putting it into practice. It has given me an insight into the world I want to go into and an appreciation of business.”

Alex Davies from Optdermis said: “It has been a life changing experience. I am now more aware of things I can do and I now know that the skills I have learned are transferable. It’s helped me understand the process that has to be undergone to achieve commercialisation.”

The competition, organised jointly by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the University of Nottingham Institute for Enterprise and Innovation (UNIEI), is open to students and postgraduates and aims to help bioscientists commercialise their ideas.

The North West heat was held over three days at Manchester United Football Club and at UMIC Core Technology Facility. Regional professionals, including representatives from UMIC and UMIP and their network of advisors and professional associates, including new sponsors AstraZeneca, offered advice and mentoring sessions to the candidates during the competition. Teams also attended workshops and seminars to hear advice and received tips on how to develop their ideas into commercially-viable opportunities.

Each team was required to present an idea that is based on a hypothetical biotechnology idea. On the final day of the event they presented their concept to a judging panel of biotechnology and business experts.

Donald Mair (BBSRC Business and Innovation Unit) from the panel of judges said: “It’s amazing how much the teams pick up over the three days, the standard seems to get better each year. Our goal is to substantially increase participation in the Biotechnology YES competition, creating new challenges along the way.”

General Manager of UMIC, Martino Picardo, said: “This competition highlights the next generation of scientists with the potential to learn about business creation. I have thoroughly enjoyed working with the students and am extremely impressed by their enthusiasm, presentation skills, ability to learn and their self-motivation. It has also been a pleasure to work with the Bionow team at NWDA, who were the major local sponsors, and with whom we work closely tobring thisevent to the northwest.”

The Young Entrepreneurs Scheme is sponsored by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC); BIA; The University of Manchester Incubator Company (UMIC); The University of Manchester Intellectual Property Ltd (UMIP); Manchester Science Park (msp); Manchester Investment Agency (MIDAS); AstraZeneca; The North West Development Agency (NWDA); BioNow; Cancer Research UK; Eric Potter Clarkson; Gatsby Charitable Foundation; GlaxoSmithKline; the Medical Research Council (MRC); the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC); Nestle; Pfizer; Smith & Nephew; Syngenta; UK Trade and Investment; The Foreign Commonwealth Office; University of Nottingham Institute for Enterprise (UNIEI) and Yorkshire Forward.

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