Early-stage innovators had their time to shine at Australia’s biggest week in life sciences at the AusBiotech 2023 conference in Brisbane.
The Early-Stage Innovation Forum (ESIF) component of the conference gave early-stage projects and technologies the chance to pitch their ideas and gather feedback during a Q and A session.
Fifteen teams of innovators from universities, hospitals and startups pitched their ideas in just seven minutes to a panel of industry experts and investors to win support for their journey towards commercialisation.
Congratulations to the two winners:
- Michelle Wykes, QIMR Berghofer and Fovero Therapeutics for the project: A novel Immunotherapy for immunotherapy-resistant cancers.
- Craig Macintosh and Dr. Sze How Bong, Murdoch University for the project: Personalised medicine for familial hypercholesterolemia patients' mutations in low density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) gene.
The winners received up to $5000 from global healthcare company Sanofi to be used for future networking and learning.
Dr Jean-Francois Toussaint, Global Head of Vaccine R&D at Sanofi and a member of the judging panel said all the judges were very impressed by the quality of the pitch finalists.
“The diversity of therapeutic areas and modalities covered as well as the scientific excellence displayed in each of the projects is another demonstration of the talent and opportunities in Australia,” Dr Toussaint said.
AusBiotech 2023 was supported by the Queensland Government and held at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre from Wednesday 1 November to Friday 3 November 2023.
The national conference featured keynotes and panel sessions and highlighted the pressing and emerging topics facing the Australian biotech sector, exploring what’s possible across biotechnology, medical devices and agtech.
