NanoPitch Health: Driving health innovation
This event took place on Wednesday 25 September 2024, showcasing cutting-edge research in health.
The event showcased impressive 4-minute pitches from all presenters, highlighting groundbreaking nanotechnology innovations with the potential to revolutionize the health sector.
The winners on the night were:
- Best Pitch ($100,000) - Dr Nicholas Hunt
- Runner up ($20,000) - Dr Syamak Farajikhah
- People's Choice Pitch Award ($5,000) - Mr Allan Sun
- People's Choice Poster Award ($1,000) - Summer Cao
The NanoPitch Health prize funding is supported by Goldman Sachs partner Zac Fletcher.
Pitchers
| Dr Belal Chami | Rapid detection of intestinal inflammation – a game changer for patients and clinicians |
| Dr Ann-Na Cho | Miniaturised human brain-on-chip |
| Dr Syamak Farajikhah | VitaGuard: A rapid cardiac health monitoring device |
| Dr Nicholas Hunt | Inverse nano-vaccination for prevention of autoimmune Type 1 diabetes |
| Dr Aeryne Lee | Next-generation polymeric heart valve replacement |
| Mr Allan Sun | SmartClot: AI paper-based blood coagulation diagnostics using a mobile phone |
| Dr Pegah Varamini | Bionic membrane-coated nanotechnology for precision therapy of triple-negative breast cancer |
| Dr Edward Yang | LesioLogic treatment mapping system to improve heart rhythm disorder procedure outcomes |
Judges
Professor Marcel Dinger PhD, GAICD, FFSc(RCPA) (Research) FRSN
Marcel Dinger is Professor of Genome Biology and Dean of Science at the University of Sydney. He has 22 years' experience in genomics as both an academic and entrepreneur. In addition to his research career, Marcel is co-founder of four start-ups in biotechnology and IT. He is a board director of Pryzm Health, a digital health enterprise focused on optimising patient care by empowering physicians with AI-based clinical decision support technology, and GenieUs, a genomics and machine-learning technology start-up dedicated to finding new therapies for neurodegenerative diseases.
Adjunct Professor Alison Todd AM, FTSE, PhD
Alison Todd is the co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of SpeeDx Pty Ltd; an Australian Molecular Diagnostics company with headquarters in Sydney and subsidiaries in the UK and USA. Alison’s career has focused on developing and commercialising diagnostic tools for tailoring and monitoring therapy for patients with cancer or infectious diseases. She is a serial inventor with over 200 granted patents describing inventions which underpin SpeeDx’s product portfolio. Prior to founding SpeeDx, Alison spent nearly 20 years within the pharmaceutical industry working at Johnson and Johnson Research Pty Limited, Sydney.
Anne O'Neill, Director, Enterprise, International Partnerships and Clinical Trials
Anne has over 25 years’ experience in the health, medical research and policy sectors. She is responsible for leading the development and implementation of major policies and programs to enhance medical research capacity in NSW, and raise the profile of NSW research and development nationally and internationally. She is responsible for the NSW Medical Device Fund and NSW Commercialisation Training Program – both have been critical to accelerating the development of NSW intellectual property and the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs in NSW. She holds a Bachelor of Science (Physiology and Pharmacology) (Hons) and an Executive Masters of Public Administration.
Mentors
Dr Leong Mar is the Head of the Commercialisation at the University of Sydney. Leong has over 25 years commercial experience in both the private and research sectors and hands on experience throughout the whole innovation lifecycle from inventor, to co-founder, mentor, advisor and non-executive director of new ventures. Prior to joining the University, he spent over 8 years at CSIRO commercialising technologies in number of industry sectors and played a key role in guiding a spin-out from launch to IPO in 5 years. He has sat on the Uniseed Investment Committee since 2018 and on the Investment Subcommittee for the NSW Physical Sciences Fund since its inception in 2019. Leong also boasts 10 years at DuPont, global science corporation. Leong holds a BSc (Hons) and Ph.D. in Chemistry from UNSW.
Lisa Linssen is the Commercialisation Ventures Advisor in the Commercialisation Team at the University of Sydney. Prior to this, Lisa was the general manager and co-founder of RingIR, a defence and agriculture startup for 7 years and raised AU$11M in non-dilutive funding. She was also IP Commercialisation Manager at UNSW and worked in global corporations, Huntsman Chemical, Toyota and Akzo Nobel.
Rupal Ismin is the Director of the Sydney Knowledge Hub, a research commercialisation centre that aims to scale the impact of research at the University of Sydney by serving as a bridge between researchers and industry partners. Rupal has helped launch and scale mission-oriented businesses, including City Innovative, a Bay Area startup working with city governments, Hub Australia, a network of coworking spaces, and Andable, an ecommerce marketplace with a social mission, as founder.
Kai Man Yuen is the Program Lead at INCUBATE, the award-winning startup program at the University of Sydney. Graduated with a Master of Science and Master of Business Management, he co-founded a platform SGNZ (Science Grad New Zealand) to help science graduates make the most informed decision about their career. He advocates the need to have the backbone of frameworks and models at the start of your entrepreneurial journey.
Nicholas joined The University of Sydney in early 2020 and leads efforts within Faculty of Medicine and Health to identify and develop new engagement and collaboration to grow research partnerships both locally and internationally between university, industry, government, and other stakeholders.
Prior to joining the university, Nicholas’ career spans thirty years working in industry, government, and higher education sector leading innovation, commercialisation, partnerships, engagement, and enterprise management. Including over twenty years based in the Greater China region.
Maria is a Senior Lecturer and Academic Fellow in Innovation Studies at the University of Sydney Business School. She has a longstanding interest in how research is commercialised with a special focus on commercialisation of science-based, new-to-market inventions. She works with scientists across the University evaluating commercialisation pathways of their discoveries. Her research is based on large-scale projects analysing e.g. the commercialisation processes of Australian high-tech start-ups and the impact of CSIRO spinouts on the Australian innovation ecosystem.
Katja is the Group Executive, Health Incubators and Programs at Cicada Innovations, Australia’s leading deep tech incubator with sites in Sydney, Westmead and Melbourne that for over 23 years has supported innovators, researchers and founders in making an impact and build successful global bio, med and healthtech companies.
Katja oversees both of Cicada’s health-focused incubators, while also leading the Commercialisation Training Programs for the health sector. Katja's leadership and her deep understanding of the healthcare landscape stem from her background as a researcher and founder of a digital health company. She draws on her lived experience to nurture groundbreaking advancements and empower ventures that make a positive impact on healthcare.