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The FTMA funding has provided our early career researchers with a wide variety of opportunities to develop new skills and acquire direct experience of the challenges and opportunities of working with industry. A summary of impacts is provided below.
PDRA Dr Karamjit Dolt (Kunath lab) did an exchange with staff at UCB Pharma to transfer of biochemistry expertise in the preparation and analysis of recombinant alpha-synuclein and the maintenance and growth of human dopaminergic neurons. These technologies are fundamental for improved understanding of the pathophysiology of Parkinson's disease and provide routes for the discovery and testing or potential therapeutic interventions. The exchange has strengthened and further developed the relationship between UCB collaborators and Edinburgh, enhanced Dolt's understanding of industry R&D in the Parkinson's arena, and has resulted in >£329k in further investment from UCB. Dolt has now secured a senior research post in Belgium.
PDRA Dr Mantas Matjusaitis (Pollard lab) did a 3-month secondment to Horizon Discovery (Cambridge, UK). The secondment allowed exchange of expertise between the company and Pollard lab. Matjusaitis gained a better understanding of how industry operates and what good practice he could replicate in an academic research lab. He then returned to the Pollard lab and worked on a more translational research topic (gene therapy), which has led to the creation of a spin out company. His work also enabled Pollard to leverage an additional £220k in grant funding from Brain Research UK. Mantas has now joined the spin out company Cellinta Inc.
PDRA Dr Alex McVey took 3 months out of his postdoc to develop a working prototype bioreactor device capable of automatically culturing four individual microbial cultures of between 5 and 20ml each. The funding allowed Dr McVey to attend the "More Business Acumen" course run by BrisSynBio in May 2018 and carry out preliminary market analysis of the product. McVey established good working relationships with key suppliers of parts for the devices and began working with influential stakeholders to define customer needs. Since then, McVey was awarded a BBSRC Pathfinder and participated in Innovate UK ICURe to conduct further market research. He helped win BBSRC IAA (local funding) to bring these devices closer to market and has now started a company called OGI Ltd and has become a Royal Society of Edinburgh Enterprise Fellow. Alex has now become MD of OGI Bio, which has received seedcorn funding and has identified several customers for its device.
The funding covered the cost of salary of Eric Thorand for 4 months during which he developed his entrepreneurial skills and explored the potential for setting up a start-up company while applying for translational awards to mature the IP. The FTMA support further maintained the existing relationship with our commercial partner, the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), where Eric successfully applied to the Defence and Security Accelerator Open Call for Innovation (DASA). He also attended the '4 Day MBA' business skills, networking and investors course organised by UK's synthetic biology industry and engineering biology industrial accelerator, SynbiCITE. The FTMA also allowed him to liaise with Edinburgh Innovations enterprise services from the University of Edinburgh and the Wellcome Trust Entrepreneur in Residence. Since the project has applications to a variety of medical applications including those related to ageing (especially orthodontics), with the help of the FMTA, Eric Thorand secured the internal translational award (Wellcome Trust Institutional Translational Partnership Award) to continue the research and explore the alternative market opportunities of the new materials. Through extensive market research and the help of the Entrepreneur in Residence, we have repurposed our initial IP into a treatment for the dental repair of tooth cavities/or caries. We are currently optimising a formulation which can be used as new active ingredient in, for example, toothpastes. A BBSRC IAA award is being used to fund market research into potential applications for enamel-based materials. Eric left the university for a role with the NHS. The project continues to be developed by Andreas Andreou.
FTMA funded the inward mobility (Newton Fund) of Birhanu Hurisa, Director of the Vaccines and Diagnostic Production Directorate, Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI). Hurisa came to the EGF to learn about state-of-the-art techniques in synthetic biology and genetic engineering. He is now exploring routes to establish those techniques in the EPHI with a view to developing a recombinant rabies vaccine that can supersede the in vivo vaccine production methods used locally. The visit has helped transfer knowledge to an LMIC and support the career development on an aspiring researcher.
Dr Anna Costa (Soufi/Lowell labs) was supported to acquire industry-relevant skills in bioinformatic analysis & technical expertise in performing and analysing Chip-seq experiments. This led to Dr Costa successfully obtaining a position in a biotech company in Cambridge where she is making use of these skills for development of improved Cart therapies. The work also led to a publication "Gfi1 repurposes Atoh1 from neuronal to hair cell determinant without redistribution of its genomic binding sites," in Genes and Development and deposited on BioRxiv.
Dr Pascoe Harvey (Rosser lab) did a ~3 month secondment in the Edinburgh Genome Foundry to learn genome assembly. He took a leadership role in designing and delivering several assembly projects for customers. Dr Harvey subsequently moved to work for a local synthetic biology SME called Biotangents.
The FTMA also supported staff from local SME Ingenza to be trained in the automation of liquid handling. This has helped them better understand the power of high throughput liquid handling and automation processes, which they are now building into their workflows. A future collaboration between the Foundry and Ingenza is under discussion.
FTMA has also supported skills development through training and industry conference attendance as follows:
• PDRA Dr Elisa Pesenti (Earnshaw lab) works on the creation and modification of Human Artificial Chromosomes (HACs), which are useful for studying human genetics and development, and in cancer drug discovery. Pesenti attended two industry conferences to gain a better appreciation of future HAC applications in drug development. This experience has helped her career decision making and opened her eyes to new opportunities. She made several links to companies we have followed up.
• PDRA Dr Nick Pantidos (Horsfall lab) attended the 4-Day More Business Acumen course and an industry conference to better clarify the potential of some IP generated by his lab. Dr Pantidos decided that the technology is too early to commercialise but exposure to the process of business evaluation, and an understanding of the market landscape, has been invaluable in his career planning.
• PDRA Dr Dirk Kleinjan attended two US conferences focused around the commercialization of biological research. Dr Kleinjan gained an understanding about the opportunities, requirements and pitfalls associated with starting a spin out company. He found it highly educational to see real examples of successful start-up companies offering a wide variety of translational technologies.
• PDRA Dr Simon Harding (Davies lab) strengthened his knowledge of Python coding via this course. This was invaluable in his role as the developer of the Guide to Pharmacology, synPHARM and Concise Guide to Pharmacology, which are significant resources developed and supported by the University and of wide value to the community. |
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Agriculture, Food and Drink,Chemicals,Education,Healthcare,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology,Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology |
