Recently we have been exploring the possibility of commercial exploitation of my PhD research. I've been handling this directly as the head of our team, delivering pitches and competing in biotechnology start up competitions.

In early 2016, we competed in and reached the finals of the BioStars biotech startup competition run by Oxford Biotech (now Panacea Innovation), taking an early stage idea and attracting interested from members of the judging panel. The BioStars competition comprised a series of workshops, where mentoring in 4 key aspects of entrepreneurship was also provided (IP, business development, finance, and scientific strategy).

The competition required preparation of a strategy, full business proposal, and was ultimately judged on a pitch given to a panel of experts including CEOs/Directors of Pfizer, Oxford Technologies, Innovate UK among others. Below are a few pictures of the gala event.