Author: zy18526

A new spin-out company has been established to develop a medical diagnostic device. The device, named Inform ™, can detect the volatile organic compounds in patient samples, in order to diagnose and monitor a range of medical conditions. Founding institutional shareholders include the University of Liverpool, the University of Bristol, the University of West of England, Bristol and The Wellcome Trust.

Nidor Diagnostics Limited will offer a range of diagnostic products, the first of which would enable patients to receive a positive diagnosis of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). Currently, the diagnosis of IBS and other related medical conditions can require many assessments, including blood and faeces testing, colonoscopy with biopsies, and radiology (X-ray) tests, and requires a lengthy process of elimination. Inform (IBS) ™ will help to speed up the diagnostic process for patients.

Professor Chris Probert, now at Department of Cellular and Molecular Physiology at Liverpool, has been influential in driving the Inform ™ technology forward over a number of years, and has been successful in securing large translational grants from Wellcome Trust and Cancer Research UK in order to develop and validate the technology in a range of other applications, including bladder and colorectal cancer.

Dr Taj S Mattu, CEO of Nidor said: “Nidor is excited about realising the technology’s potential to improve the diagnosis of a number of diseases, not just IBS in the near future..”

Professor Anthony Hollander, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Impact, University of Liverpool, said: “We are very excited about the future of Nidor – the University of Liverpool has incubated the technology for a number of years, in collaboration with the other stakeholders, and the project has received significant support from the University of Liverpool’s Enterprise Investment Fund.”

Throughout the process, academics were supported by the IP Commercialisation teams at Liverpool, Bristol and UWE. Emma Nolan, Head of IP Commercialisation at Liverpool, said: “We’re pleased to have completed the founder round for the company – we have a very dedicated academic founder and a first-class management team.”

Tech-XPO is an annual event organised by SETsquared Bristol, with the 2019 Tech-XPO taking place last night at Paintworks, Bristol. This year, the University of Bristol’s Research and Enterprise Development team were amongst the sponsors.

The event attracted about 20 exhibitors who had the opportunity to showcase their technologies and meet with potential investors. The main focus of the evening was the Elevator Pitch Competition. A recent University spin-out company, Actuation Lab, not only showed off their exciting new actuated valve and rear wing technologies but also made the award for Best Elevator Pitch and the winner was Vitamica Ltd, another of our spin-out companies. Congrats!

Great to attend the Translational Pathway Symposium organised by the Cancer Research Network in Bristol on Monday and hear about exciting translational cancer research happening in Bristol. Do you want to find out how to translate your research? Learn more on our website!  

We had a lovely time on the 6th of June at the Launch:Great West awards ceremony. A number of Bristol spin-outs won awards or were finalists. Amongst these,

Rosa biotech won the Ones to watch Award;

Cytoseek won the Rising Star Award; 

Ultrahaptics won The Rocket Fuel Award;

Ceryx Medical won The BioDesign Award; 

Imophoron won The Global Good Award;

Ziylo/Carbometrics won The Deal of the Year Award 

Many thanks to the organisers for showcasing and celebrating innovation in scientific commercialisation activity taking place in the South West.

See more photos and info about all winners and finalists here.

‘Spin-outs’ are companies formed thanks to the concerted efforts of both academics and research commercialisation teams. Translation of ideas born in the university’s labs and libraries into commercial products which provide real solutions to our world’s problems is more often than not associated with assiduous work from these parts and require additional help from third party players. Grant funding from bodies such as Innovate UK and Welcome Trust are often at the core of supporting key stages of this journey.

Bristol spin-outs have secured £3.8M worth of grants in 2018 alone according to a Beauhurst article published last month. To name only a few, iComat, Zentraxa and Rosa biotech are spin-outs examples in Bristol who have recently secured grant funding.

The University of Bristol ranks 5^th after Imperial in the top UK universities by number of grants secured by spin-outs and 6^th after UCL in the top UK universities by value of grants secured by spin-outs in 2018 (Beauhurst, May 2019).