This year marks the twentieth anniversary of the incredible discovery of graphene. The elusive nano-material demonstrates astounding properties with applications including electronics, clothing, paints, healthcare and water purification. In particular graphene is actively being explored as a foundation for targeted therapeutics and implantable devices and sensors. Collaborations between industry and research groups have been forging a commercialisation pathway.
Now Scottish nano-materials manufacturer iGii has developed a highly sensitive and accurate component for point-of-care diagnostic sensors. The application is experiencing strong demand worldwide through delivering rapid and precise, laboratory grade test results for a range of illness indicators, including those implicated in cancers, pathogens and liver and heart failure.
With a recently announced £8.8m of fresh venture funding in hand, the company is planning to broaden research and development into regenerative applications such as water and food quality sensors, agricultural sensors, and battery storage. This strategy involves close collaboration with university researchers already working on discrete applications that are underpinned by graphene based nanomaterial technologies.
For example a recent iGii project with the University of Bath resulted in a new battery-free sensor for testing lactic acid levels in athletes. The company also collaborated with University of Edinburgh research spinoff SensiBile on a prototype electrochemical biosensor to measure biomarkers in donor livers and assess transplantation suitability. Such projects come at a pivotal moment for universities across Scotland with concerns that investment in research, science and innovation is lagging, despite Scottish government aspirations to grow high tech innovation and entrepreneurship. Collaborations between universities and with industry are increasingly being viewed as the way forward in a resource constrained environment however.
Image credit: AlexanderAlUS – under CC BY-SA 3.0
Like all good researchers, Genius Refi is testing some hypotheses around disrupting the status quo and creating more value for entrepreneurial science researchers through collaboration. Please enjoy this free news site that focuses on the commercialisation of regenerative science research.
Join our mailing list for updates as we develop a live investment and collaboration platform.
