Inventors: Oliver Bonner & Dr. Joan Lasenby, Engineering & Dr Kathy Beardsall, Consultant Neonatologist, Addenbrooke’s Mentor: Dr. Oriane Chausiaux In the UK, the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) cares for approximately 95,000 critically ill newborn babies per year, including many who … [Read more...]
Identifying the need for monitoring extracellular fluids in brain injuries, skin grafts and elsewhere
Inventor: Dr Tanya Hutter, Chemistry Mentor: Bob Pettigrew Microdialysis is a sampling technique that is used for continuous measurement of free, unbound analyte concentrations in the extracellular fluid of a tissue. The inventors have developed a new method to detect several chemical … [Read more...]
Designing a screening device for ovarian cancer
Inventor: Dr. Elizabeth Moore, Obstetrics & Gynaecology at Addenbrookes Hospital & Cancer Research UK Mentor: Dr. Marc Bax Ovarian cancer is typically difficult to diagnose by symptoms alone, with the result that many cases are not diagnosed until the cancer is at a late stage. The … [Read more...]
A new method of identifying the genes behind complex genetic diseases
Inventor: Dr. Luba Chakalova, SNPr Mentor: Bill Matthews Complex genetic diseases are influenced by multiple genes, with examples including diabetes, psychiatric disorders and autoimmune diseases. Numerous genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have been carried out to identify the hot spots in … [Read more...]
Using AI based micro drones to improve crop yields and reduce pesticide usage
Inventor: Dr. Sohab Sarfraz, Speedy Quarks Mentor: Kevin Gooding Global food production needs to increase by 50% by 2050 to meet the expected increase in world population. Precision agriculture is one such technique to better target the use of water, fertiliser and pesticides to the plants that … [Read more...]
Improving AI safety by mapping what AIs really learn
Inventor: Dr Botty Dimanov, Computer Lab Mentor: Martin Carroll AI (artificial intelligence) or machine-based learning is now in widespread use, being used in areas as diverse as the development of self-driving cars, image, speech and sound recognition, improving search algorithms, and searching … [Read more...]
Assessing the viability of a device for improving patient adherence to medication regimes in the developing world
Contact: Dr. Andrés Arcia-Moret, Dr. Whitney Scott & Dr. Maria Sharmina, D-FLEX and Computer Lab Mentor: Bill Matthews Patient adherence to complex or long-term medication regimens is a known problem in both developed and developing contexts. Sub-optimal adherence to prescribed medication is … [Read more...]
Investigating the need for blockchain technology in developing economies
Contact: Dr. Melvyn Weeks, Economics Mentor: TBC Blockchains allow for distributed digital ledgers, rather than centralised systems governed by a single authority. Although the initial use has focused on new peer-to-peer currencies such as Bitcoin, blockchain systems can be used in any situation … [Read more...]
Developing antimicrobial ointments and wound dressings for the developing world
Contact: Dr. Nuno Faria, School of Veterinary Medicine Mentor: Dr. Mark Priest, Harrogate Partners Metals are known to have antimicrobial effects and silver has been used widely in recent years. However silver is an expensive material, and although silver dressings remain sterile for longer than … [Read more...]
Investigating the market potential for a new microscope designed to observe real-time membrane protein interactions
Contact: Dr. Andrew Thompson, Department of Medicine, and SMi Drug Discovery Mentor: Peter Hill The use of microscopy to observe biological processes has undergone huge advances in the last decade, an achievement recognised in 2017 with the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. A paralleled increase in … [Read more...]
Finding the best commercial approach for a tool to monitor and improve FORTRAN code
Contact: Andrew Rice and Matthew Danish, Computer Lab Mentor: Adrian Swinburne For more information: See CamFort on GitHub FORTRAN was one of the first computer languages to became widely used in the 1970s and 80s, in particular being used as a way to carry out computational modelling. As well … [Read more...]
Developing a go-to-market strategy for an online real-time laboratory notebook application
Contact: Jake Schofield, Founder & CEO, LabStep & Alisa Molotova Mentor: Tiffany Morris Labstep is a new solution to an age-old problem in scientific experimentation: how to ensure that all the details of an experimental method are captured accurately, so that experiments can be more … [Read more...]
Monitoring plastic pollution in island states
Inventors: Dr. Steve Roberts, Dr. Huw Griffiths & Dr. Claire Waluda, British Antarctic Survey Mentor: Brian Corbett Plastic waste is everywhere, even in remote lakes near Antarctica, and is a particularly difficult problem for island nations which rely heavily on tourism. In these cases the … [Read more...]
Saving lives in the developing world by reducing the carbon monoxide emissions from stoves
Inventor: Dr. Steve Marshall, British Antarctic Survey Mentor: Dr. John Mullett Paraffin stoves have been used for cooking in Antarctica since the first expeditions over a century ago. Modern stoves are very similar to those originally used, though they have become lighter and more compact. … [Read more...]
Working with countries in Africa and South America to achieve real-time detection of solar flares and reduce their impact on aviation, maritime and land-based communications
Inventor: Dr. Mark Clilverd, British Antarctic Survey Mentor: Dr. Jessica Ocampos Rapid, real-time detection of solar flares can be accomplished by monitoring atmospheric changes in very low frequency (VLF) radio signal propagation conditions. Solar flares are the first indicator of a sequence … [Read more...]
