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Molecular Vision Ltd (MV), an Imperial Innovations spinout, has developed a low-cost technology for multiplexed analysis on bodily fluids. The BioLED™ platform rapidly delivers lab-quality information from a single-sample point-of-care diagnostic device. Since 2008 MV has validated the platform, including demonstration of its Cardioplex™ triple test for myoglobin, CK-MB and troponin-I in a serum sample, and undertaken > £1.5M of contract work for a variety of customers including Acrongenomics Inc, Microfluidic ChipShop and L'Oreal. A further £1.2M in non-UK and £2.6M in UK equity investment and > £660K in non-UK grant funding has been injected via MV into the UK economy during the REF period, securing > 50 person years' employment. MV is now a key component of the Abingdon Health Group's (AHG's) strategy to create a fully integrated UK business to compete in the multi-billion pound global immunodiagnostics market. Agreements with a leading European pharmaceutical company and a large multi-national chemical company, in both cases to co-develop point-of-care diagnostic tests in the UK, are now underway.
Aurox Ltd is an Oxfordshire spin-out company formed in 2004 by Prof Mark Neil (at Imperial since August 2002) with former colleagues from Oxford University. Its main product line consists of wide field optical sectioning fluorescence microscopes based on the principle of structured illumination and detection using patterned disks. The microscopes use conventional (lower cost) light sources and do not require a scanning system which sets them apart from competitors. Research at Imperial has impacted on the design of disk patterns for optimising performance and has played a critical role in bringing these microscopes to market. Aurox's systems are supplied to and marketed by Carl Zeiss (as VivaTome™) and Andor Technology (as Revolution DSD™) for application in the biomedical sciences, generating successful sales over the period 2008-2012 and enabling Aurox to embark on a second-generation development programme. Since 2008 Aurox have sold more than 150 units with market value in excess of £3M. The majority of this £3M in sales have been since 2010 when an optimisation step which was developed and devised at Imperial College was incorporated into the Aurox products.
A spin-out company, Ingenia Technology Ltd, was launched in 2005, to bring the technique now known as Laser Surface Authentication (LSA) to market. LSA is used to detect and prevent forgeries by allowing a unique, naturally occurring and uncopyable identity code to be read from material surfaces. It is particularly useful for fighting counterfeiting and smuggling of high-value documents and products and as such makes an important contribution to (i) industrial and consumer safety, (ii) commercial revenues and (iii) countering criminal activity. Organisations and companies contracted to use Ingenia's LSA technology include the pharmaceutical firm Bayer, carton manufacturers CARTONDRUCK and Grafiche Bramucci, Swiss precious metal refiner PAMP and the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Researchers at Imperial College London have established a spin-out company called Ionscope Ltd which develops and sells Scanning Ion Conductance Microscopes (SICM). This is a novel technology that can (i) characterise live cells and their derivatives non-destructively during differentiation and development, (ii) correlate biophysical features at unprecedented resolution with detailed transcriptional information on a single cell level, and (iii) steer cell fate by mechanical stimulus. Other high magnification techniques interfere with or kill living cells, whereas SICM is benign, allowing living cells to be studied over long periods, making it a highly desirable technology for all groups working within biomedical research. The technique has application in the study of living processes at nano-scale, which to date has included neurons, heart muscle, kidney, sperm and stem cells. Ionscope Ltd sales since 2009 have totalled [text removed for publication], with the company registering a 20% increase in its revenue over the past 5 years.
Locust and grasshopper outbreaks can form swarms containing billions of insects, creating feared and damaging agricultural pests. Following research at Imperial College London, the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium acridum was developed into an oil formulated product (`Green Muscle®') that could be applied by ground-based and aerial spray equipment at ultra-low volume (ULV) rates, when locust and grasshopper populations periodically increased. Green Muscle® has since been used to treat locust outbreaks in Israel and five southern African countries. Green Guard®, an associated mycoinsecticide marketed in Australia, has been used extensively to control locusts in regions where there are land use limitations on chemical pesticides. Both Green Musclef6da and Green Guardf6da are supplied by Becker Underwood. Besides the success of Metarhizium as an effective, environmentally-friendly locust control option, substantial science and enabling technology ensued, that should accelerate the development of other mycopesticides as important alternatives to currently beleaguered chemical pest control methods.
Work since 1993 at Imperial College has led to a novel generic approach to Separation Science called: Label Free Intrinsic Imaging (LFII) — with applications in high throughput proteomics, metabolomics, analytical chemistry, health care diagnostics and genomics. LFII was commercialised by Imperial spin-out deltaDOT Ltd in Nov 2000. Sales of LFII products by deltaDOT have been made to various sectors including pharmaceutical, analytical and diagnostic companies. The average annual turnover of deltaDOT Ltd in the REF period was >£600k per annum and the net worth and total assets in 2012 were £569,595 and £808,027, respectively. The deltaDOT technology has been adopted by the US multi-million dollar DARPA-funded [Defense Advanced Research Project Agency] rapid-vaccine development programme. In 2009 an affiliate company, deltaDOT QSTP-LLC, was formed in Qatar, developing a world-class proteomics research and testing facility in Doha also entirely based on the LFII technology. Since its formation deltaDOT QSTP-LLC has generated total revenues of >$10M.
Methodological, algorithmic and interpretational advances in wavelet techniques for time series analysis are encapsulated in the research monograph by Percival and Walden (2000): "Wavelet Methods for Time Series Analysis" (WMTSA). Multiple language software packages have been developed from the book's contents, including the Spotfire S+ package from the major commercial software company TIBCO (2008-present). TIBCO Spotfire clients span many sectors and include major companies such as GE, Chevron, GlaxoSmithKline and Cisco. Further applications of the wavelet techniques developed in WMTSA include in the biomedical, conservation and financial sectors. WMTSA is used, for example, in functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging by GlaxoSmithKline, to monitor cracks in the dome of the UNESCO world heritage site Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral in Florence, and by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand in its analysis of measuring core inflation.
Plaxica is a spin-out from, and based, at Imperial College London with economic, societal and environmental impacts. Launched in 2008, Plaxica is a process technology licensing business which is tackling the barriers that currently prevent a wider acceptance of bioplastics; specifically improving properties, decreasing cost and using non-food feedstocks to manufacture the biopolymer poly(lactic acid), PLA. Plaxica's technology uses sustainable feedstocks to produce PLA using more energy-efficient processes, to produce a strong, high-quality polymer, the result of which is a low-cost, environmentally-friendly biopolymer for use in applications including textiles, packaging, and automobile parts. In the REF period Plaxica has raised £10m from investors such as Imperial Innovations, Invesco Perpetual and NESTA Investments. The market pull for biorenewable materials from consumers is strong and the EU predicts that PLA will substitute >10% of the existing market for petrochemical polymers and forecasts a market >$15b [A].
Working with TMO Renewables Ltd, work in Dr Leak's laboratory at Imperial College demonstrated that thermophilic bacteria of the genus Geobacillus could use a novel (i.e. non-textbook) route to produce ethanol. TMO used this information to develop strains that produced ethanol in commercially useful quantities from lignocellulose breakdown products. This allowed them to: (i) compete for and win a major contract ($500M over 20 years) with Fiberight in the USA in 2010, to turn fermentable components of municipal solid waste into biofuel, (ii) enter into partnership agreements with the China National Offshore Oil Corporation and the China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Corporation in 2011, and (iii) enter into agreements in 2012 and 2013 with Usina Santa Maria Cerquilho to build a bioethanol production facility in Brazil. The most recent agreement with Brazil will create more than 150 new jobs in the UK. At the end of 2011, TMO Renewables reported a net worth of almost £11million.
Bio Nano Consulting (http://www.bio-nano-consulting.com) was established as an operating business in 2007 through a joint venture between Imperial College London and UCL, whose formation was underpinned by research produced by Professor Tony Cass's group at Imperial. The company is the first consultancy in Europe to focus on the increasingly important intersection between bio- and nanotechnology, and it facilitates the development and commercialisation of new biomedical and nanotechnology-based techniques. Since its start-up, the company has attracted numerous clients across the aerospace and diagnostics sectors, including Lockheed-Martin and [text removed for publication]. The company's activities have generated £6M worth of revenue and it has a growing portfolio. The company, which is based in London, currently has 8 full time employees.