New initiatives and collaborations are putting The University of Western Australia at the forefront of the growing biomedical and health innovation ecosystem.
Biodesign Australia, a network administered by UWA, enables Biodesign programs across Australia to share resources, speakers and best practice to provide a qualityexperience for participants and biomedical innovations for patients.
Biodesign programs commenced in Australia in 2016 and are now in Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane.
Professor Kevin Pfleger, Director Biomedical and Health Innovation, says collectively the programs have trained hundreds of budding entrepreneurs through MedTech and digital health courses.
Perth Biodesign is training the next generation of biomedical entrepreneurs by identifying unmet clinical needs, inventing solutions that address these needs and creating implementation strategies that fit within a complex healthcare sector,” Professor Pfleger says.
“It brings together multidisciplinary teams of people who want to make a difference in healthcare and build the connection between industry, academia, health services and specialised service providers to create a healthcare innovation opportunity.”
Recently a new partnership between Texas Medical Center, the largest medical city in the world, and Biodesign Australia was announced at Science on the Swan in Perth.
Bill McKeon and Kevin Pfleger
Professor Pfleger, who is also President of the Australasian Society of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacologists and Toxicologists, says the collaboration allows further access to talent and clinical trial activity, expanded funding opportunities and markets.
“By uniting the programming, talent and expertise found at Biodesign Australia and Texas Medical Center we are creating a dynamic ecosystem that will help to shape the future of healthcare,” Professor Pfleger says.
The iPREP Biodesign program, an initiative between Perth Biodesign and iPREP WA, gives PhD candidates an industry engagement opportunity and training on design thinking, while at the same time giving industry access to invaluable research expertise and talent.
“The program is an opportunity to improve the sustainability and competitiveness of Australian innovations by giving PhD students a competitive advantage across a broad range of future career paths in industry,” Professor Pfleger explains.
“By uniting the programming, talent and expertise found at Biodesign Australia and Texas Medical Center we are creating a dynamic ecosystem that will help to shape the future of healthcare.”Professor Kevin Pfleger, Director Biomedical and Health Innovation
“It helps bridge the ‘industry-research divide’ by linking the abilities of PhD students to the development needs of industries.”
Furthering UWA’s imprint on the sector is the WA Life Sciences Innovation Hub - a partnership with the Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation of the WA Government, and MTPConnect, the national industry growth centre for medical technology, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals.
WA Life Sciences Innovation Hub works to support the WA Health and Medical Life Sciences Industry Strategy, facilitating biomedical and health innovation and entrepreneurship, creating new jobs and diversifying the economy.
Located at the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research in Nedlands, the hub drives initiatives in the health and medical life sciences that deliver growth opportunities for WA.
“The innovation hub delivers programs to connect the innovation community, build capacity and new skills, attract investment and foster commercialisation,” Professor Pfleger says.
The hub’s Manufacturing Voucher Program is providing a boost for medical products manufacturing in WA and under the scheme five WA-based companies have been awarded a total of $450,000 to accelerate innovation projects requiring advanced manufacturing capabilities.
Matched with cash co-contributions of $600,000, the program is injecting more than $1 million into WA’s medical technology, biotechnology and pharmaceutical sector.
Established in 2014, the BioZone at UWA brings together researchers with a shared vision and purpose from across the University, from science and engineering to health and medicine.
The researchers use a transdisciplinary approach to biomedical research to solve complex challenges, leading to improved patient care.
“We need innovative solutions that address the increasing complexity of local and global challenges so we can find answers to problems that may seem impossible to solve,” Professor Pfleger explains.
“These problems require transformative change in the way we learn, think and interact.”
The BioZone PhD program trains the next generation of researchers to work across disciplines and create imaginative and revolutionary outcomes.
In their first year of the program, students are encouraged to work in a wide range of areas to gain broad and varied experience. They are then instrumental in designing their own project while continuing to study and research across multiple disciplines.
UWA has a strong track record in translating its research into medical products, including six FDA-approved drugs and multiple FDA-approved medical devices.
The growth of the biotech industry in WA saw researchers from UWA, Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research and Perth Biodesign recognised for their innovative initiatives at the New Industries Fund: WA Innovator of the Year Awards 2021.
Apricot, an advanced coronary artery assessment tool developed by Navier Medical, won the Rio Tinto Emerging Innovation category. Winners of Perth Biodesign for Medtech 2019, VeinTech, was awarded the Business News Great for the State Platinum Award for VeinWave, a portable hand-held vein imaging device designed to help clinicians successfully target the right vein, first time, every time.
We need innovative solutions that address the increasing complexity of local and global challenges so we can find answers to problems that may seem impossible to solve.Professor Kevin Pfleger, Director Biomedical and Health Innovation
WA’s mark in the industry will continue to expand when the AusBiotech 2022 conference brings the Australian and global biotechnology network to Perth from October 25 to 28.
Life sciences investment conference, AusBioInvest 2022, is also taking place in Perth this year on October 27. The event connects innovative businesses and investors to help ideas get the funding they need to succeed in an extremely competitive market.
Straight after AusBiotech at the end of October will be the Biomedical Engineering Innovation, Design and Entrepreneurship Alliance Asia Pacific (BME IDEA APAC) meeting. Hosted this year by Biodesign Australia, directors and facilitators of Biodesign programs from around the world will assemble in Perth to showcase innovation and share best practice.
APSA-ASCEPT 2022, the joint conference of the Australasian Pharmaceutical Science Association and Australasian Society of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacologists and Toxicologists, will also be in Perth at the end of November, completing an incredible line-up of biomedical conferences in Perth.
UWA Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Anna Nowak says UWA’s biomedical and health research and innovation are among the best in the world.
“The University will continue to grow our research capacity and connect researchers, enabling UWA to make a positive impact on the health of our local and global communities,” Professor Nowak says. “The common thread is research towards a better world.”
Download a print copy of Uniview Winter 2022 to read the full edition. An accessible version is also available.