Projects
Growth factors for stem cell culture, regenerative medicine and bioprocessing
Contact: Dr. Catherine Onley, Qkine; Dr. Marko H Hyvönen, Dept of Biochemistry & Qkine Mentor: Dr. Marcus Yeo, CEO, DefiniGEN Qkine is a recent spin-out from the Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge. The scientific founder, Dr Marko Hyvönen has over 25 years of experience in producing hard-to-make proteins for structural biology, in large quantities.…
Finding the best healthcare applications for a natural language voice
Inventor: Anthony Silver, Voice for Good Mentor: Dr. Simon Pulman-Jones Voice for Good offers web-based services for people without access to the internet, through their voice-powered platform called Vocodo, accessible via a basic phone call. The first two services are Vocodo Translate, which offers a translation service between the 15 currently-supported languages, and Vocodo Health…
Developing a low-cost finger-prick sensor for blood potassium levels
Contact: Dr Tanya Hutter, Chemistry Mentor: Tom Collings, Cambridge Consultants Maintenance of blood potassium levels within defined limits is crucial to health; healthy blood potassium levels are between 3.5 and 5.0 mmol/L. Both severe hyperkalaemia (high-potassium) and hypokalaemia (low-potassium) are associated with abnormal heart rhythms and sudden death. In patients with kidney dysfunction, potassium levels…
Novel extraction of specialist cells for use in cellular therapeutics
Contact: Dr. Krishnaa Mahbubani & Dr. Kourosh Saeb-Parsy, Department of Surgery Mentor: Dr. Karin Schmitt Human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) isolated from living donors are the main source of lymphocytes for basic and translational research, including drug screening and the generation of cellular immunotherapies such as Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) and regulatory T cells.…
Investigating the best routes to market for MyICUVoice – an
Contacts: Dr. Tim Baker, Speciality Registrar & Dr. Vilas Navapurkar, Consultant in Intensive Care, Addenbrooke’s Hospital Mentor: Clara Aranda-Jan Admission onto an intensive care unit (ICU) is one of the most frightening lifetime experiences a patient or their relative can have. Research has shown that an inability to communicate is the most distressing and frustrating…
Making deductions from incomplete datasets – in drug discovery, materials
Contact: Dr. Gareth Conduit, Physics & Ben Pellgrini, Intellegens Mentor: Paul May Intellegens is a spin-out from the University of Cambridge which develops unique Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms that have the capability to train and predict from incomplete data. The algorithm has been developed in the Physics department and has already had commercial success in…
The Fiber Faucet : Exploring the commercial potential for efficient
Contact: Dr. Stoyan Smoukov, Active & Intelligent Materials Lab, School of Engineering and Materials Science, Queen Mary University of London and University of Cambridge Mentor: Adrian Swinburne Nanofibers have demonstrated potential to be used in high efficiency air and water filtration, as tissue engineering scaffolds, as protein affinity purification columns, battery separation membranes, and smart…
Developing a new biodegradable plastic from industrial waste materials
Contact: Elena Loche More information: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZOjG5_N5UQ Mentor: Dr. Jessica Ocampos Elena Loche and her team members from Ecuador, Sweden and New Zealand were the winners of the Gap Summit competition 2017 with their idea of using the waste biomass from citric acid production to produce a biodegradable biopolymer to be used as a replacement for…
Circular photosynthesis: Plant-based bioelectrical system hub for off-grid villages
Contact: Paolo Bombelli and Chris Howe, Department of Biochemistry Mentor: Dr. John Mullett There are over a billion people currently living off grid. Until such communities have access to modern energy services, progress to develop their economies and improve their lives will be hampered. The Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7 aims to provide access to affordable, reliable,…