International companies such as GlaxoSmithKline—and other leading participants in the Portuguese innovation ecosystem—joined MIT Portugal students and researchers at the second annual IdeaSpring conference to celebrate outstanding potential technologies.  Ideaspring The conference, held on March 2, 2009 at the Biocant biotechnology innovation center in Cantanhede, Portugal, was organized by the MIT Portugal Program’s Bioengineering Systems focus area. The annual event spotlights its student “Bio-Teams” and their go-to-market innovation projects. Each BioTeam collaborates with a Portuguese research lab on a selected technology; a key student challenge is to devise a strategy for launching the technology in the marketplace. This year, more than 100 people attended the conference. They represented venture capital firms, companies, technology licensing offices, and students and faculty from the MIT Portugal Program and other programs. More Than a Dozen Technologies Considered Following a call for technologies in October 2008, 10 research centers
in Portugal and abroad submitted 13 technology projects. These
technologies were solicited as the basis for MIT Portugal students’
BioTeams projects during the Spring 2009 term. An international panel that included members of the Bio-engineering
Systems team, companies sponsoring prizes, and technology parks,
reviewed the technologies on the basis of their novelty, their likely
impact in the market, and likely technological success. The following
seven projects were chosen to be presented at the IdeaSpring
conference: - Functional identification of new neurons and oligodendrocytes differentiating from neural stem cells
João O. Malva, CNC, University of Coimbra - Diagnostic gene probe for the patulin mycotoxin in food and drink
Russel Paterson, IBB, University of Minho - Optical Biochips
João Pedro Conde, INESC/Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores do Porto. - Phage-Based Magnetoelastic Wireless Biosensor for the Detection of Salmonella in Food Stuff
Joana Azeredo, IBB, University of Minho - Real-time pathogens bio-sensing based on Ion Jelly® technology
Nuno Lourenço, IBB, Instituto Superior Técnico–Technical University of Lisbon - Detoxification of ochratoxin A containing commodities (Detox-Ochra)
Luís Abrunhosa, IBB, University of Minho - Development of anti-microbial coatings for biomedical devices
Sandra Carvalho, Department of Physics, University of Minho
Coimbra’s Professor Malva Receives GlaxoSmithKline Prize At the conference, each technology’s Principal Investigator
presented their project in an “elevator pitch” format. The 3,000 Euro
GlaxoSmithKline Prize—to the Principal Investigator of the technology
considered most promising by the review panel—was awarded to João Malva of CNC/University of Coimbra. Professor Malva’s research involves a novel method of working with
neural stem cell cultures, one that could lead to the development of
new drugs that could improve “brain repair” or transplantation
therapies for individuals suffering from trauma, Parkinson’s disease
and multiple sclerosis. BioTeams Launched The IdeaSpring event effectively launched MIT Portugal’s BioTeams
projects for students from both the Bio-Engineering Systems and the
Engineering Design and Advanced Manufacturing focus areas. In addition
to designing go-to-market strategies, these students will attend
seminars and classes on entrepreneurship, innovation, intellectual
property and market assessment this semester. Lígia Rodrigues of the University of Minho, one of the organizers of
the event and a faculty advisor to the BioTeams program, said that the
IdeaSpring event played an important role in developing students’
understanding of how technologies relate to innovation and markets.
“IdeaSpring gives students from Bio-Engineering and other MIT Portugal
courses a first-hand look at how professionals from technology
companies, venture capital firms, technology parks and academia come
together to move technologies from the bench towards the marketplace.” Input from Industry The conference also featured two plenary sessions and a roundtable
dedicated to entrepreneurship and the challenges and difficulties faced
in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. Participants
included Manuel Gonçalves, Vice President & General Manager at
GlaxoSmithKline; Jorgen Thorball, Managing Partner of XOventure;
Frederik van Keulen, CSO of BioTrend, S.A.; João Andrade Fernandes of
InovCapital, and Ana Paula Amorim, who represented UTEN–UT
Austin/Portugal. In addition, a representative of the winning BioTeams team from 2008,
Tatiana Aguiar, spoke about her experience and described what happened
with the technology that was the focus of her team’s work. “When we
started, we had [one] idea for the technology, but during the semester
we saw that there was a much more interesting application that the PI
never thought about. In the end, we managed to patent the technology.
We believe that our work was worthwhile and relevant for the PI and his
research group.” BioTeams Awards to be Given in July 2009 At the culminating event for the BioTeams projects in July 2009, two more awards will be given: - The 10,000 Euro Biocant Ventures Prize, for use
in further commercial development of the project with the most
promising commercial application based on market-oriented research
- The University Technology Enterprise Network
(UTEN) Prize for Market Outlook. A market outlook is a 40- to 60-hour
early market assessment. At the core of a market outlook are 8 to 12
interviews with potential customers, end users, partners and technology
validators. All parties work together to develop a two- to three-page
plan for entry into the US for partnerships, sales, and/or a corporate
presence. UTEN makes introductions, facilitates, and may perform
select, crucial tasks to enable market entry.
The organizers of the IdeaSpring 2009 conference were Lígia Rodrigues
and Isabel Rocha (University of Minho), Miguel Prazeres (Instituto
Superior Técnico-Technical University of Lisbon), and João Nuno Moreira
(CNC). Event sponsors:
Biocant
Biocant Ventures
GlaxoSmithKline Other sponsors:
APBIO (the Portuguese Bioindustry Association)
APBA (the Portuguese Business Angel Association)
UT Austin/Portugal Program |
