NU/1246-1 STEMGEL: Commercialisation of university research through provision of management skills to assist in successful spin-out company creation

Prof. Che Connon of Newcastle University has invented a cell encapsulation technology which provides a novel solution to the many problems associated with the transportation and storage of cells and cultures.

The proposal is to set up a company ("StemGel") to exploit the commercial opportunities presented by the core technology platform. Those opportunities span a wide range of segments of the overall life sciences sector, including, but not limited to, research tools for the individual laboratory researcher through to new therapeutics for regenerative medicine. The business will use its core IP to provide kits for the transportation of cells in the laboratory supply and cell distribution sectors. Routes to market will include direct sales to individual researchers and sub-licensing to companies whose core business is the sale of high value engineered cells and tissues. There will be a progressive roll out into more complex (but higher value) segments.

Although there are technologies already on the market for the hypothermic transportation of cells and tissues, there is no established market leader and StemGel's technology provides a number of significant additional benefits, including:

The initial brief of the executive will be to:

• (a)Produce a viable business plan;
• (b)Obtain university approval for the venture;
• (c)Act for the company in the spin-out legal process and address all company formation matters;
• (d)Secure (venture capital and other) funding

Stage (d) will produce the funds by which the new start-up company can employ the executive going forward. It is expected, and the intent of the scheme, that the Executive will remain with the business following the end of the contract period.