Log in
Impact: altered business practice / new business venture created
Research into biophysical detection methods undertaken within PHYESTA has resulted in a Gothenburg-based multi-national, Mölnlycke Health Care, establishing a Scottish subsidiary (MHC Scotland) to exploit a commercial (exclusive license) partnership involving PHYESTA and Scottish Enterprise. This represents (i) creation of a new business sector for the company, and (ii) adoption of a new technology into its portfolio.
Significance: Mölnlycke Health Care has used its access to PHYESTA's IP portfolio, via license arrangements, as the primary vehicle for creating a new business venture enabling its entry into the diagnostics market for the first time.
Reach: Mölnlycke Health Care is a leading innovator in infection control in hospitals with employees in 30 countries worldwide. Its entry into the diagnostics market has implications for the entire company.
Beneficiaries: Impact in 2011-2013 pertains primarily to Mölnlycke Health Care and to the Scottish economy.
Attribution: This work was led by Professor Jason Crain, in collaboration with Professor Andrew Mount (Chemistry), Professor Peter Ghazal (Medicine), and Professor Anthony Walton (Engineering).
This case study outlines the impact in generating investment in a spin-out SME and in developing a technology for clinical diagnosis based on chemistry research carried out in Bath. The research led to a spin-out company, Atlas Genetics, which has raised over £18M funding in the REF period specifically to develop the Atlas io™ platform, novel technology for rapid (<30 minute) and robust detection of infectious diseases suitable for point-of-care. The investment has created new jobs for highly skilled workers at the cutting-edge of medical diagnostics, with Atlas currently employing 36 staff. The io™ platform has been fully developed and has undergone successful clinical tests on multiple infections (based on bespoke Chemistry developed at Bath) prior to clinical trialling and rollout in Europe and the United States.
Atlas Genetics Ltd is a University of Bath spin-out company established in 2005 by Dr John Clarkson, a former lecturer in the Department of Biology and Biochemistry (DBB). In collaboration with DBB researchers, Atlas Genetics developed novel technology for rapid (<30 minute) and robust detection of infectious diseases at the point-of-care. Atlas Genetics has raised over £22m funding specifically to develop the Atlas ioTM detection system, which combines a patented electrochemical detection system with probes for specific micro-organisms within a small disposable cartridge. Different probe cartridges are used to detect a range of pathogens that have critical clinical importance and large-scale socio-economic significance, including Candida, methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), bacterial meningitis, and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) Trichomonas, Chlamydia and Gonorrhoea. Candida research in DBB underpinned the specificity, sensitivity and application of the technology to clinical samples and was used in seeking capitalization for Atlas.
Atlas Genetics re-located from the University to a nearby business park and employs 35 full-time staff, some having moved from academia into the company largely thanks to the synergistic relationship with University of Bath researchers. The ioTM platform has undergone successful clinical tests on Chlamydia and Trichomonas at Johns Hopkins University, USA. The ioTM platform and Chlamydia test is scheduled for clinical trials in 2014, with roll out in Europe and the USA, pending regulatory approval, providing global reach within the $42bn in vitro diagnostics market.
Impact: New business, technology, intellectual property and employment resulting from the invention and exploitation of a micro-scale laboratory device (ScreenTapeTM).
Significance: New business and technology commercialised resulting in sales of novel products worldwide, acquisition by Agilent Technologies Limited (Agilent) for £[text removed for publication] in 2011, product sales of over £[text removed for publication] to August 2013, generation of sustained employment for 50-160 people, major inward investment (£6M) by local investors followed by a US multinational.
Beneficiaries: The economy, commerce, employment, research and diagnostic laboratories, Agilent Technologies Inc. (Agilent).
Attribution: UoE Prof Peter Ghazal and Dr Douglas Roy inventors on granted patent, establishment of multi-disciplinary research in biochip medicine, collaborators with ex-Motorola engineers, co-founders of spin-out company for commercialisation of intellectual property.
Reach: Worldwide, including employment and product sales. Inward investment to UK.
Professor Chris Toumazou FRS and his team at Imperial College have developed biomedical technologies based on ultra-low-power CMOS and ISFET electronics to provide the medical community with the means to rapidly diagnose, monitor, and treat diseases with confidence and at low cost. Since 2008, the impact of this research has been to:
I1) spinout a start-up company DNA Electronics (DNAe) to deliver point-of-care products to quickly recognize genetic diseases and identify potential poor drug interactions;
I2) enable Life Technologies (formerly Ion Torrent) to develop the Personal Genome Machine (PGM) that have generated $100m in sales (in the 18 months since its launch) using DNAe's core semiconductor sequencing IP;
I3) save lives by using the PGM in clinical and public health applications;
I4) spinout a second start-up company (Toumaz) that has released SensiumVitals®, a FDA-approved and CE-marked ultra-low power system for wireless monitoring of patient vital signs;
I5) provide early warning of adverse physiological events in clinical settings using the SensiumVitals® platform resulting in improved quality of patient care and reduced demand on intensive care provision in hospitals internationally.
The spin-out company, Degrasense, has developed and protected intellectual property of technology capable of quantifying specific proteolytic enzymes through changes in electrochemical responses (impedance) at electrodes due to the enzymatic degradation of polymer coatings. The company has detected several specific proteases that are relevant to the monitoring and treatment of a number of conditions including: periodontal disease, multiple sclerosis, haemophilia and hypertension. The technology is currently being validated in a clinical trial as a point of care sensor for the detection of active periodontal disease. Point-of-care sensors provide immediate, low-cost test results in non-laboratory settings, offering a more patient-centred approach to healthcare and earlier detection of disease.
High-throughput genotyping has revolutionised the genome-wide search for associations between genetic variants and disease. Professor Sir Edwin Southern of the University of Oxford's Biochemistry Department invented the highly cost-effective array-based method of analysing genetic variation based on hybridisation between probes and samples on glass slides or `chips'. The spin-out company Oxford Gene Technology (OGT) founded by Southern in 1995 licenses the patent to manufacturers of `single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) chips', including Illumina and Agilent, a global business exceeding $500M per year. Southern has continued to refine and extend this technology to increase its speed, efficiency and cost-effectiveness. This revolutionary technology has widespread applications such as prediction of individual risk, development of new drugs, provision of personalised treatments, and increased cost-effectiveness of clinical trials. Licence revenues fund R&D within OGT, and endow charitable trusts supporting primary school science education in the UK and crop improvement in the developing world.
Research led by Dr A McNally at Nottingham Trent University has driven the development of rapid diagnostic protocols and devices for infectious diseases, principally Influenza, Salmonella and Campylobacter. This began by working on the validation of a standardised real-time PCR test for H5N1 avian influenza which is now used in European reference laboratories. Follow on funding from European Union and Technology Strategy Board led to the development of fully automated diagnostic devices for companies who have taken their products to market and attracted substantial investment from world-leading pharmaceutical companies.
The MRC Prion Unit was established at UCL in 1998 to address national public health issues posed by bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). One of our key strategic priorities has been to create a validated blood test for vCJD in order to protect public health through the screening of donated blood and organs for transplantation. The blood test we have developed has been demonstrated to detect infection in over 70% of patients with vCJD with, to date, 100% specificity and is now in use at the National Prion Clinic for evaluation.
Hagan Bayley's research on nanopore sensing for DNA sequencing at the University of Oxford led to the formation of the spin-out company Oxford Nanopore Technologies Ltd (ONT) in 2005. Since 2008, ONT has raised £ 97.8M to support research and product development. This level of investment arises as a direct result of the pioneering technology ONT has developed, based on research in the UOA, which has the potential to revolutionise DNA sequencing and other single molecule analyses. ONT currently employs 145 people, nearly six times as many as in 2008, and was recently valued at $ 2 billion. Evidence from ONT was used in a 2009 House of Lords report on genomic medicine, demonstrating ONT's position at the forefront of this new technology.