SPARK Sydney was officially launched last week, welcoming 10 teams to the program with a talk by special guest, Prof Daria Mochly Rosen (co-founder and co-director of SPARK Stanford).
The ten selected teams come from either the University of Technology Sydney and The University of Sydney. Over the next two years (or until teams incorporate into a company) these projects will receive tailored mentoring and advice, and six of these will receive milestone funding with the aim of translating them into products or services that can benefit patients and the community as a whole. Find out more about the SPARK Sydney course here or keep reading for more info on the team members and projects!
Funded and Mentored
Prof Mary Bebaway from UTS
A liquid biopsy for Diagnosing and Monitoring the progression of Multiple Myeloma
Dr Lana McLements from UTS
Developing new predictive risk stratification biomarkers and targets based on complete transcriptome and proteome for pre-eclampsia and heart failure.
Dr Olga Shimoni from UTS
Screening test for Coeliac Disease
Dr Tristan Reekie
Rachel Codd from University of Sydney
A new resin for enriching the phosphoproteome
Wojtek chrzanowski from University of Sydney
Extracellular vesicles as next-generation therapeutics for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
Mentored
Martin Stewart from UTS
A strategy to optimise low-cost-low-toxicity cancer treatments
Dr Ann Kwan from University of Sydney
Developing new antibiotics by targeting specific molecular interactions in bacteria
A/Prof Elena Bagley from University of Sydney
Positive allosteric modulators of endogenous opioids for anxiety disorder treatment
Dr Pegah Varmini from University of Sydney
Using Advanced Nano-micelle Formulations to target breast cancer cells