Med-Tech Innovation University News
NEWS FROM THE UNIVERSITIES Brunel launches innovative manufacturing hub
Brunel University’s new Collaborative Research Network (CRN) in Innovative Manufacturing is designed to help UK manufacturers prosper in today’s highly competitive global marketplace. The CRN will provide UK industry with access to Brunel’s extensive manufacturing capability and create new opportunities for innovation in knowledge transfer, cross-disciplinary research and industrial collaboration.
The Innovative Manufacturing CRN will draw on the expertise of the 500 researchers working in manufacturing across the University, including those from Brunel’s specialist research institutes: the ESPRC-funded Multidisciplinary Assessment of Technology Centre for Healthcare; the Brunel Innovation Centre run with TWI; the Wolfson Centre; and the Experimental Techniques Centre. The new CRN Director, Professor Kai Cheng explained that the new CRN was needed now because the nature of manufacturing has fundamentally changed. “Many different players and partners up and down the value chain are needed. As a result, it has become difficult for all but the largest players to assemble the skills, knowledge and technologies needed to develop new products and services successfully…The Innovative Manufacturing CRN will enable UK manufacturers of all sizes to access in one place the expertise they need.”
CRN Co-ordinator Dr Richard Bateman said that, despite widespread public perception, manufacturing remains absolutely critical to the UK’s economy. “Manufacturing accounts for 14-15% of the UK’s GDP, 50-55% of exports, and employs three million people. Most people are surprised to hear that the UK is the sixth largest manufacturer in the world.”
www.brunel.ac.uk
Oxford spin-out wins more funding
OrganOx, spun-out of the University of Oxford, has completed a Series B investment round of £2.75 million. This comprised strong support from current investors as well as new ones such as the Royal Society. Dr Les Russell, CEO of OrganOx, commented, “These funds will allow us to complete our clinical studies and prepare for market launch in 2012 and also to push forward with further exciting developments aimed at increasing the number of organs available for transplant.” OrganOx is developing a medical device that will increase the availability of suitable livers by enabling successful transplantation of organs from non-heart-beating donors and reducing the number of discarded livers. The device operates by maintaining the organ in a fully functioning state during transport and storage, by providing blood flow, oxygen, nutrients and temperature within physiological parameters. This not only enables the liver to be stored safely for a longer period (up to 24 hours), but also provides the surgeon with real-time and cumulative data with which to assess viability and make a decision on whether or not to transplant. This is a major advance over the current method of assessment, which is largely subjective.
Stephen Brindle, a partner with major shareholder Technikos, said, “I am pleased for Les and the team that they’ve been able to raise this money, especially in a financial environment which remains challenging for early stage high technology companies. Financing aside, we are keen to support a technology that so clearly addresses an unmet medical need – more than 2,000 livers each year are retrieved, but then not transplanted. We are confident that the company’s device, once approved by the regulatory authorities, will enable surgeons to perform significantly more transplants with those organs that today would normally be discarded.”
www.organox.com
06 ¦ April 2011 Pioneering at Newcastle
The UK Health Secretary has asked the Human Fertilisation and Embryology authority to assess a fertility treatment developed by researchers at Newcastle University, which could eradicate serious inherited disorders.
The technique involves the transfer of DNA between two fertilised eggs
to help prevent the transmission of mitochondrial diseases, which are passed down through the maternal line. The technique developed by the Newcastle team involves extracting the pronuclei, but leaving behind the mitochondria. The researchers then take a fertilised egg from a donor, remove its pronuclei and replace them with the extracted pronuclei. This new fertilised egg contains the DNA of the father and mother, and the mitochondria from the donor.
www.ncl.ac.uk
www.med-techinnovation.com
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