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Imperial launches entrepreneurship programme for synthetic biology startups

A pioneering entrepreneurship programme for startups at Imperial College London is helping to take synthetic biology from lab to market

Lean LaunchPad for Synthetic Biology has been running for the past twelve weeks at the College, aiming to equip inventors in the field with the skills, knowledge and understanding to commercialise their idea.

Marking the completion of the programme this week, the Lean LaunchPad teams came together to present their business models and share the lessons they learnt, the skills they developed, and the customers they discovered.

This is the first time that the Lean LaunchPad - the brainchild of US entrepreneur Steve Blank - has been brought to the UK for synthetic biology.

Lean LaunchPad put a focus on participants talking to their target customers - finding out what they want and need, and reiterating and developing their business plan and product according to the insights they gained.

The course was organised through SynbiCITE, an Innovation and Knowledge Centre (IKC) based at Imperial which aims to provide a bridge between academia and industry to speed up the development of new technologies in synthetic biology.

The programme has been open to students, researchers, and members of SynbiCITE’s 19 academic and 56 industrial partners.

Team Cellibero, made up of Imperial postdoctoral researchers Dr Richard Kelwick, Dr James MacDonald, and Dr Lorna Ravenhill, presented their range of science education kits based around molecular biology.

The innovative kits use a cell-free based system - which is a freeze-dried mix of non-living cellular machinery, derived from harmless bacteria, and DNA, which can be activated by adding water to produce colourful proteins or enzymes that generate scents.

Richard said: “When we began thinking about business ideas, we knew that we wanted to come up with something that we were passionate about and that would really make an impact. As children we remembered playing with chemistry sets and electronics sets, and we wanted to see if there would be a market for a molecular biology equivalent – a way of getting young people excited about the kind of science we do in the lab.”

“We’ve had a lot to learn over the past 12 weeks, and the Lean LaunchPad process has been a real eye opener to who our customers are, what they want, and how our product can meet their expectations. We’re all now looking to take the leap from academia into the business world and hope to soon be in a position to launch our company.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ellen Forster .