Michaelmas 2019
Investigating the benefits of monitoring the moisture profile of agricultural
Inventors: Ben Woodington, Elena Schaefer, Katie Gibson & Douglas van Niekerk, CDT in Sensor Technologies & SoliCamb Global efforts in soil health management are increasing but remain a major challenge. Limitations of existing tests and the need for laboratory equipment hinders the ability to instill management practices to improve soil health rapidly and effectively. In…
Diagnosing urinary tract infections with a low-cost microscope
Inventor: Alex Patto, WaterScope Mentor: Dr. Bill Matthews Almost all patients with a suspected urinary tract infection will receive broad-spectrum antibiotics after testing with a dipstick in care homes or doctor surgeries. Current methods to test for antibiotic susceptibility rely on colony culture and are usually conducted in centralised diagnostic laboratories taking 2-5 days. With…
Investigating the global pathways for plastic recycling to understand where
Inventors: Taylor Uekert & Dr Christian Pichler, Chemistry Mentor: TBC The Reisner lab in Chemistry works on a range of patented photoreforming processes, which use photocatalysts and sunlight to simultaneously break down plastic waste or biomatter and generate hydrogen. In this project, a non-toxic, carbon-based and easily-available photocatalyst is used to break down plastics into…
Finding the best market for tissue-engineered collagen tubes to replace
Inventors: Dr. Alex Justin & Dr. Athina Markaki, Engineering Mentor: Dr. Karin Schmitt The research team in Engineering has built up a wide range of expertise in producing collagen tubes de novo in the lab. Once seeded with cells, such tubes can serve as a three-dimensional cell culture platform for disease modelling, drug testing, and…
Investigating the best market entry strategy for reagents and techniques
Inventors: Dr. Jessica Iegre, Josephine Gaynord, Dr. Hannah Sore & Professor David Spring, Chemistry & Pep2Smart Mentor: Dr. Julian White Peptides are a growing class of drugs, with properties in between small molecules (eg paracetamol) and biologics (eg antibodies). Insulin is a widely-used example of an establised peptide-based treatment. Advantages of peptides include their ability…
Developing a go-to-market strategy for a new product to reduce
Inventor: Nawar al-Zebari, Chemical Engineering & Urologic Mentor: John Mullett Urinary catheters are the most widely-used long-term medical device. 26% of all hospitalised patients will be given a urinary catheter and 40% of those patients will acquire a urinary tract infection (UTI). Many (but not all) of these patients will be elderly or disabled, or…
PostDoctoral researcher
Participating in i-Teams has been one of the best things I did while being in Cambridge.It inspired me to talk to the technology transfer office about whether we can patent my own research. As a result, next year we will be looking at whether we can work with an external company, which is very exciting.…