Event Guide
Scotland Final 2 September 2021
Welcome A message from Converge Converge is Scotland’s largest academic company creation programme dedicated to a new generation of innovators, creators and ground-breakers. We help them to turn their ideas into commercially viable businesses and enable participants to connect with a dynamic network of like-minded individuals and organisations to help them drive their business ideas and research forward. By providing access to funding and enhancing our participants’ profiles, Converge functions as a springboard for many aspiring academic entrepreneurs. We have partnered with Cancer Research UK to create a competition dedicated to cancer researchers in Scotland with the aim to inspire and support research commercialisation and help create a more entrepreneurial mind-set. The Activate Challenge allows researchers to develop an understanding of the commercialisation process, learn the fundamentals of business and be able to assess commercial viability of their projects. Derek Waddell, interim director, Converge
A message from Cancer Research UK Cancer Research UK is excited to be partnering with Converge for the second year running to deliver the Activate Challenge Scotland competition. Through this programme, our researchers have access to bespoke training, 1-2-1 support and new networks to help them navigate the translation process. Cancer Research UK recently launched an initiative to develop and nurture a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship amongst cancer researchers in the UK. By supporting researchers to accelerate the translation of their ideas and discoveries into products that will improve the lives of cancer patients, we hope to realise our ambition for 3 out of 4 patients diagnosed with cancer to survive the disease by 2034. Tony Hickson, chief business officer, Cancer Research UK
Scotland Final 2021 The final event 15.00 Networking opens 15.15 • • • • • • •
Event begins, featuring: Introduction by Derek Waddell, interim director, Converge Address by Stephen Shaw, associate director of Cancer Research UK’s Commercial Partnerships team The pitches! Keynote address by Prof Ed Tate, professor of chemical biology at Imperial College London, satellite group leader at the Crick institute and chairman of the scientific advisory board at Myricx Pharma Q&A Announcement of runner-up and winner by Alison Howe, former MD at Strategic Consultants Ltd, and now volunteer consultant with Cancer Research UK Closing remarks by Stephen Shaw
16.15 Networking 17.00 Close
Profile: Professor Ed Tate Ed leads a team of scientists is at Imperial College London and the Francis Crick Institute working on novel tools to understand and manipulate living systems with a focus on drug target discovery and validation, particularly in oncology. He is a Fellow of the Royal Societies of Chemistry (FRSC) and of Biology (FRSB), and a Director of Imperial’s Centre for Drug Discovery Science. He has received several awards for his research, including the 2019 Sir David Cooksey Translation Prize and 2020 Corday-Morgan Prize in recognition of his group’s research in chemical biology and drug discovery. He sits on the Scientific Advisory Boards of numerous institutes and biotech companies, and he was the founding CSO of Myricx Pharma Ltd, an oncology drug discovery company established in 2019 to translate novel findings from his lab. He is currently Chair of the Myricx Scientific Advisory Board.
2021 Finalists Valerio Annese Multicorder - CancerChip University of Glasgow Built on breakthrough research at the University of Glasgow, the Multicorder platform uses new sensor and system designs coupled with algorithmic methods to create unique diagnostic information from multiomics measurements. The platform is intended to allow the diagnosis, screening, and management of complex diseases such as prostate cancer. We aim to develop a point-of-care device capable of diagnosis and stratification of prostate cancer in minutes from a drop of blood of symptomatic and asymptomatic subjects.
Max Bone Precision Analytics Cancer Research UK Beatson Institute Precision Analytics offers a range of in-house sequencing and bioinformatic analytical techniques to generate fast and easily interpretable data visualisation for clinical cancer analysis, making personalised RNA transcriptomics sequencing efficient, uniform and inexpensive. Using this platform, customers can send tumour samples to be analysed and Precision Analytics will isolate, sequence align and process all RNA transcriptome profiles to the same standard to generate easily interpretable data aimed at clinicians to personalise cancer therapies based on transcriptomic profiles.
Alberto Bravo-Blas Fluorescence-based granzyme B-specific cell killing assay Cancer Research UK Beatson Institute Significant advances in cancer therapy have been made in recent years however the efficacy of current therapeutics vary greatly between cancer types and from patient to patient. There is an ever growing number of compounds being developed every year but not all of them make it past the early stages due to a lack of reliable assays for assessing effective cancerous cell killing. Here, we propose Fluorescence-based granzyme B-specific cell killing assay that uses EL4 cells transfected with a construct which is a Granzyme B substrate that provides a clear and measurable readout of the efficacy of potential cytotoxic compounds.
Nagore De Leon Development of colorectal cancer chemoprevention-agents through BMP pathway activation – n_AToM Solutions Cancer Research UK Edinburgh Centre Colorectal carcinoma (CRC) is the most common cancer, with 42,000 new cases and 16,000 deaths every year in the UK, and with an increasing frequency of diagnoses. CRC screenings allow to stratify patients for colonoscopic investigation, but take-up and predictive value are modest, resulting only in 20% reduced CRC mortality. Furthermore, finite NHS resources cannot support ever-increasing endoscopic surveillance requirements. There is, therefore, much scope and need for improvement through new CRC-prevention strategies. We have developed a simple organoid-based functional-screen to a discovery platform that can identify small molecules as CRC chemoprevention-agents that activate the bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) pathway, which we have found to be central to the risk and pathogenesis of benign polyps and carcinoma differentiation.
Mari Carmen Ortega-Liebana GOLDEN Therapy Cancer Research UK Edinburgh Centre There are approximately 18.1 million new cases of cancer each year. Cancer costs the world more money than any other disease – about $895 billion a year. The focus is on targeted cancer therapy. This need for new approaches is to supplement the conventional chemotherapy, prevent damage to normal tissues, prevent drug resistance and increase the delivery efficiency of therapeutics. GOLDEN Therapy is a novel chemical strategy to improve the efficacy and safety of cancer treatments. We have developed tumourimplantable devices in order to “produce” chemotherapeutic drugs, from an inactive prodrug, in a selective and safe way, overcoming the limitations of actual therapies.
Sofia Polcowñuk Morpheus - Non-invasive cancer diagnosis through sleep tracking Wolfson Wohl Cancer Research Centre, University of Glasgow The idea behind Morpheus is to create a platform that allows researchers and doctors to identify early stages of cancer through sleep and circadian parameters tracking and analysis. With the help of specific monitoring devices, like wrist watches or other wearables, and small blood samples in combination with a specific app, people can track deviation from normal sleep parameters and the cycling of circadian hormones, like melatonin and cortisol. Doctors can later use these data to detect the early stages of a tumour or metabolic deregulations that can lead to the development of cancer, allowing them to start with less invasive treatment.
What’s at stake today? Our six finalists are competing for these exciting prize packages to advance their business ideas:
First prize £3k cash plus £3.5k package of commercialisation support
Runnerup prize £3.5k package of commercialisation support
Do you have what it takes? If you’d like to explore how to take your research from bench to bedside, get in touch!
Contact lissa.herron@convergechallenge.com for updates on the programme