News from the Institute - 2009/10
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BioCeramic Therapeutics Wins ACES Academic Enterprise Award
The Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Departments of Materials spin-out BioCeramic Therapeutics and its principal founder and Chief Scientific Officer, Professor Molly Stevens of Imperial College London, have won the prestigious ACES Academic Enterprise Award in the Life Sciences category. The award was presented to the biomaterials company at a ceremony in Paris, France on December 10th 2009.
The highly competitive award, sponsored by Amgen International, recognises BioCeramic Therapeutics’ tremendous potential and achievements in rapidly bringing the work of Professor Stevens and her colleagues from the laboratory bench to the point of commercialisation. BioCeramic Therapeutics was founded in 2006 by Professors Molly Stevens and Robert Hill, and CEO Daniel Green.
BioCeramic Therapeutics’ products are designed to benefit patients with some of the most serious orthopaedic and dental conditions by stimulating and assisting in the body's natural tissue regeneration processes. The materials innovations also have potential future applications in soft tissue regeneration. Dr Stephan Rietiker, chairman of the board of directors, said: "We take great pride that BCT's success is being recognised internationally. We are poised now to bring the fruits of our labours to the benefit of patients during 2010."
The European Awards for University Entrepreneurs aim to give public recognition to those who have done the most in 2009 to foster a culture of enterprise, the ultimate aim being to improve the flow of ideas out of European laboratories and into the marketplace. The prizes were awarded by the Science|Business Innovation Board.
http://www.bioceramictherapeutics.com/
See a video of Professor Molly Stevens talking about her research and innovations in bone and tissue regeneration here
Funding for Centre of Bio-Inspired Technology
The Rector of Imperial College, Sir Roy Anderson and Professor Winston Wong have signed an Agreement to mark a donation of £2m from Dr Wong to form a new Centre for Bio-inspired Technology.
The new Institute will be managed and developed by Professor Chris Toumazou will support a new research team of Research Associates, Research Fellows and PhD students funded by the Centre. Funds will also be used to strengthen the collaboration between Taiwanese Universities, hospitals and the semiconductor Industry in Taiwan and Imperial college in the field of Bio-inspired Technology. Additionally, Prof Toumazou will continue his collaboration with medical researchers and clinicians and scientists and engineers from a range of disciplines. His aim will be to move new technologies from the laboratory to commercialisation to ensure that the outcomes contribute to improvements in healthcare, especially for independent living, and lifestyle.
Professor Toumazou said ‘I am honoured that Winston has chosen to fund my research by endowing this Centre. I have long believed that we can learn such a lot from biology and by mimicking living systems we can create and innovate advanced technologies.’
For more details please visit the Imperial College News Page
DNA Electronics Wins R&D Prize at Elektra09 European Electronics Industry Awards
Institute of Biomedical Engineering spin-out DNA Electronics Ltd has been named as the winner of the prestigious R&D prize at the Elektra09 European Electronics Industry Awards for its “SNP Dr” real-time gene testing innovation. DNA Electronics triumphed from a shortlist of five other finalists to be named winner by an independent panel of judges in recognition of its innovative technology and intellectual property strategy. The Elektra09 award ceremony was held on Tuesday 1st December 2009 at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London.
DNA Electronics SNP Dr (pronounced ‘snip doctor’) is a breakthrough silicon chip-based handheld device that offers fast and accurate spot test results for specific DNA sequences that indicate how patients are likely to respond to prescription drugs. The device is now being trialed in partnership with global pharmaceutical company Pfizer. Each year, the NHS spends £460 million to treat 250,000 patients admitted to hospital suffering adverse reactions to prescribed medication. A test to identify people likely to react badly to prescribed medication will enable doctors to tailor dosages to the individual needs of patients, bringing greatly improved treatment and massive potential cost savings to healthcare providers.
DNA Electronics was co-founded by the inventor of the foundation technology, Professor Chris Toumazou FRS, who is CEO of the company and director and chief scientist at the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at Imperial College London. The core technology is based upon switching transistors on and off with DNA, which has culminated in the world’s first DNA logic on standard CMOS technology.
The annual Elektra Awards recognise the achievements of individuals and companies across the European electronics industry. The judging panel said of DNA Electronics’ submission: “This was the strongest set of finalists the Elektras has ever seen for the R&D Award. The winner impressed for quality of its basic research in an emerging area of electronics design.
Commenting on the award win, Professor Toumazou added: “We are absolutely delighted to have won an Elektra award in recognition of this ground-breaking and important innovation. The cost-effective and convenient testing enabled by the SNP Dr device will allow doctors to assess patients in the GP surgery and prescribe optimal dosages and treatments on-the-spot – without a lengthy and costly laboratory analysis. This award reflects the exceptional talent of the team at DNA Electronics who are now bringing this technology to commercial fruition.
Dr Tim Constandinou Wins IET Career Achievement Award
The Institute of Biomedical Engineering’s Dr Tim Constandinou has been announced as the 2009 winner of the IET’s Young Professionals’ Career Achievement Award, given in memory of Mike Sargeant. Dr Constandinou, who currently holds the position of Assistant Research Director and Research Officer of the Bionics Group at the IBE, was presented with his award (pictured) at the IET Ambition and Achievement Awards Ceremony held at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London on 25 November 2009.
The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) Awards programme is designed to reward and celebrate individual excellence and innovation. The Mike Sargeant Award is presented annually to t h e Young Professional who is judged to have made the most significant progress in their career over a number of years. Nominees must have shown exceptional leadership in developing a project, have contributed creatively when de veloping a new product or service, or have demonstrated exceptional commitment to engineering through their academic or professional development.
Dr Constandinou has held his current position – which encompasses technical management, leadership and research innovation – since the formation of the IBE. Dr Constandinou plays a key role in leading the multidisciplinary bionics and personalised healthcare group, providing technical supervision in microelectronics. He has also been instrumental in planning, procuring and deploying the IBE’s world-class bionics and personalised healthcare research facilities.
Institute Postgraduate Awarded Prestigious Fellowship
On 2nd September 2009, Nir Grossman, a PhD student in the Institute, was presented with his award of a BBSRC Enterprise Fellowship by the President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Lord Wilson of Tillyorn.
Nir received the Award for research conducted during his PhD studies. He developed a new research tool capable of providing sophisticated spatiotemporal stimulation patterns on large scale neural network with a single neuron resolution. The technology emerged from the developmental work, led by Dr Patrick Degenaar, Nir’s PhD Supervisor in the Institute, on a new type of retinal prosthesis for blind people with degenerated retinas. The new tool has immediate applications for studying the cellular conditions which underlie pathological brain states, such as schizophrenia and epilepsy.
The Royal Society of Edinburgh, with the support of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), has established the Enterprise Fellowships to increase the exploitation of ideas with commercial potential from BBSRC supported research. The Fellowships provide funding to enable an individual to advance the commercialisation of existing research results or technological developments. They are tenable for a period of one year. The Fellowships enable the holder to concentrate on developing the commercial potential of their research, whilst also receiving formal training in relevant business skills. The Fellowships are managed by the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) and each Fellow will receive business training to help them develop a business plan, a year’s salary and access to mentors, business experts and professional advisors. Entrepreneurship training is supported by the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship, University of Strathclyde.
Nir wishes to record his thanks to Prof Tony Cass and Dr Patrick Degenaar of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Dr Tim Meldrum, formerly of the Tanaka Business School, Dr Rob Fenton and Imperial Innovations for supporting his application to the BBSRC.
November 2009
Institute of Biomedical Engineering Wins Times Higher Education Award
The Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Imperial College London, has been honoured with a top prize for innovation at the prestigious Times Higher Education (THE) A wards 2009. The Institute was named overall winner in the category of "Outstanding Contribution to Innovation and Technology". The awards were announced at a gala ceremony at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London on Thursday 15th October.
Now in their fifth year, the Times Higher Education Awards are the leading awards for the higher education sector, created to recognise, celebrate and reward the highest standards of excellence and talent in UK academia. This year the awards attracted over 600 entries from more than 130 higher education institutions.
The Institute of Biomedical Engineering (IBME) was recognised by the panel of specially selected judges for its sheer breadth of innovation in the areas of medical diagnosis and treatment, personalised healthcare, regenerative medicine and biomedical imaging. The panel was impressed by the range of innovation achieved and its transferability into other fields.
Commenting on the award win, Professor Christofer Toumazou, Director and Chief Scientist of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at Imperial College London said: "We are extremely proud to receive this special honour from the preeminent awards in the higher education sector. Our ambition at the Institute is to deliver breakthrough advances in technology that enable people to lead independent lives despite illness, ageing and disability, and we are thrilled that the innovation and leadership demonstrated by the entire IBME team has been recognised in this way".
Ann Mroz, editor of Times Higher Education, said of the winning entry: "Imperial's contribution to innovation and technology is simply too large to be ignored. The projects from the Institute of Biomedical Engineering are transforming lives in an enormous range of pioneering ways".
For the full list of THE Award winners, please visit: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/theawards
MICCAI 2009, 20th – 24th September 2009
MICCAI 2009, the 12th International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention, was held at Imperial College from 20th – 24th September 2009. MICCAI attracts world-leading scientists, engineers and clinicians from a wide range of disciplines associated with medical imaging and computer assisted surgery.
The conference was chaired by Professor Guang-Zhong Yang, Director of Medical Imaging at the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Chairman of the Imperial College Imaging Sciences Centre, founding Director of the Royal Society/Wolfson Medical Image Computing Laboratory at Imperial Colle ge, and co-founder of the Wolfson Surgical Technology Laboratory.
The 5-day conference included a full programme of workshops, tutorials and keynote presentations. Professor Sir Michael Brady (FRS, FREng, FMedSci, FIET, FInstP, FBCS) will address the conference on the topic of Oncological Image Analysis, and Professor Koji Ikuta from Nagoya University in Japan will deliver a keynote presentation on Nano and Micro Robotics for Future Biomedicine.
IBME Director Professor Chris Toumazou Honoured With 2009 World Technology Award
IBME Director and Chief Scientist Professor Chris Toumazou FRS has been honoured with the 2009 World Technology Award for Health and Medicine.
Professor Toumazou was named as this year’s recipient at a gala ceremony on Thursday 16 July. The award ceremony was held at the TIME Con fer ence Center, Time and Life Building, in New York, at the culminat ion of the two-day World Technology Summit.
The prestigious World Technology Awards are given in recognition of those individuals and companies doing in novative work of "the greatest likely long-term significance" in their respective fields. Nominees are proposed by Fellows and Founding Members of the World Technology Network (WTN) – a global community of the key players working in technology, from technologists, financiers and entrepreneurs to government officials, policy analysts and futurists. Other recipients of an Individual award this year include Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and President Paul Kagame of the Republic of Rwanda. Corporate winners include YouTube (in the category of Communications Technology), Amazon (IT Hardware) and Facebook (IT Software). The corporate winner in the Health and Medicine category was the Mayo Clinic.
World Technology Network Founder and Chairman James P. Clark commented: “The World Technology Network was conceived to bring together the most innovative and impactful people and organisations in science and technology today. Professor Chris Toumazou is a great example of an extraordinary individual working tirelessly on technologies and businesses that are actively creating the future, as exemplified by the pioneering digital band-aid healthcare product now entering the market through Toumaz Technology. Professor Toumazou’s achievements have been wholeheartedly endorsed by his peers through this award, and we are delighted to welcome him to the association.”
Commenting on his award, Professor Toumazou said, “I am very grateful to the members of the World Technology Network for this honour. The focus of my professional endeavour has always has been to accelerate the development and adoption of technology that can benefit and improve the lives of people around the world. I am delighted to become a part of a community of innovators that share this vision.”
The Institute of Biomedical Engineering is the winner of the 2009 Times Higher Education award for outstanding contribution to Innovation and Technology
