On 21st January 2022, second year Birmingham student Jessica Chadwick (as part of a team made up of students and researchers from the universities of Birmingham, Nottingham and Keele), won the Environment YES21 prize.

The YES21 competition is a scheme for early career researchers to increase their awareness of research commercialisation.

The team's business concept, called RoboCrop, is a remote drone sensing operation that would allow early detection of pest and pathogen outbreaks using three different sensors (e-nose, IR and chlorophyll fluorescence). This would reduce pesticide inputs into fields, limiting environmental impacts and reducing costs for farmers. The team won a share of a £15k prize fund.

On their win, the team said:

"We are so proud of winning Environment YES21. Our multi-university team had to work virtually and didn’t know each other beforehand, despite this, we created a successful team. Syngenta’s workshop was uniquely rewarding with fantastic mentorship throughout. We have broadened our skill set in ways we hadn’t even considered before the competition. An amazing opportunity and having finally met in-person after the final, winning was the cherry on top."

Congratulations to Jess and the team.

Second year Birmingham CASE student Jessica Chadwick is part of a team who has made the final of this year's YES competition.

Birmingham final year MIBTP Jake Carter is one of the scientists behind the development of the worlds fastest covid test, delivering results in just 5 minutes.

The development, hailed as a world first, could be the breakthrough to help get more people safely back to work and play, and control outbreaks more effectively.

Jake's supervisor, Professor Tim Dafforn, praised Jake for leading the breakthrough by working 'incredible hours' through the pandemic.

Prof Dafforn added: "He said he wanted to make a difference, and create a Covid assay, he went into the lab on his own and, though we provided the intellectual support, he has been incredible. He drew on his family to help him, with the data analysis by his dad, who runs an IT firm.

"He completely went into this with his whole heart and deserves every praise. We are the professors behind it but he has put in incredible hours."

The test is on course to be fully tested and ready by Easter.

Alex Baker, an MIBTP 3rd year student, is part of a team at the University of Warwick who are developing a new diagnostic tool for rapid detection of Coronavirus. The tool, being developed by the The Gibson Lab at the University of Warwick, in collaboration with its partner Iceni Diagnostics, may allow on-the-spot detection of Coronavirus infection, without facilities using a simple disposal device using glycans (sugars) to detect the virus.

There is an urgent need for new diagnostics, especially those which give rapid results for screening of healthcare professions or for getting transportation, education and manufacturing hubs running again.

The diagnostic proof of principle has been demonstrated in initial studies, but the partnership is now searching for investment or philanthropic donors to take the concept forward.

Two University of Leicester MIBTP students, Kalina Boytcheva and Charlotte Davison, have reached the finals of the BBSRCs Biotechnology Young Entrepreneurs scheme; Biotechnology-YES competition.

Kalina, Charlotte and their team (which is comprised of PhD students and postdocs from the Department of Genetics and Genome Biology) will join seven other teams from around the country to compete in the finals of the competition at the Royal Society in December.

In order to win the regional heat of the competition, they had to beat off five other teams by coming up with a plausible (although entirely invented) idea that could be transferred from a research lab to a valuable business. Their idea was to make structurally coloured cellulose for fabric from microalgae. They attended a two day workshop in Manchester with speakers and mentors with expertise in areas such as IP, tech transfer and finance to help them develop their ideas and business plan. On the third day they had to pitch their idea in a 15min presentation to a panel of 4 judges and ask for an “investment” followed by 10mins of questions; similar to “Dragons’ Den”.

Thomas Karikari, 2012 Warwick student and recent MIBTP graduate, has been been invited to serve as a Guest Editor for a special Issue on International Science Education for the Journal of Microbiology and Biology Education, published by the American Society for Microbiology. Thomas is one of five experts in international science education who have teamed together to solicit, review, and organize a special issue centered on this topic.

Further details can be found on the American Society for Microbiology website.

Charlotte Rich, Maura DiMartino, Elspeth Ransom win at the Biotechnology Yes Competition.

Inara Liepina, Leicester 2014 MIBTP student, is part of a group who have won their regional heat to reach the final of the Biotechnology Yes competition in London next month.

Inara and her team mates (Leicester students Akang E. Ekpenyong-Akiba, Razif Abas and Meetal S. Solanki) who named themselves the Hotbronze Product Group, formulated a novel self-tanning lotion (CareTan) that can stimulate melanocytes to produce more melanin, giving rise to an even and long lasting skin tan.

Hotbronze Product Group were one of two winning teams from their heat who will now compete at the final on 5th December 2016 in London.

MIBTP student Michael McLeod wins October's Shell LiveWIRE Smarter Future Award for his business Universal Resource Trading. Universal Resource Trading provides an easy way for universities to recoup space, generate revenue and prevent waste of their unwanted equipment. Michael's business won £5000 start up funds and coaching from senior Shell business leaders. You can read more about Michael's business and watch his elevator pitch video here.

If you are interested in applying to the scheme - more details can be found on this page.