In collaboration with one of last year’s winner Drop-Tech Ltd, a company formed from an academic collaboration between Imperial College London and The University of Cambridge, Dolomite has already developed Mitos Dropix, an innovative droplet system providing a flexible and automated solution for droplet-on-demand applications. Liisa van Vliet, Managing Director of Drop-Tech, commented: “In a university environment, finding the time to convert an invention into a product is often difficult. Dolomite knows and understands microfluidic droplet technologies and had the engineering expertise to productize the solution.” The novel system which features a patented droplet "picking" technology was developed in just under a year and Dolomite is already taking orders for delivery in the beginning of 2014.
The second winner in 2012 was Dr. Jeff Martin at Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, MA, who has developed an integrated microscale analysis system for proteomic studies involving limited amounts of cells. The system allows detailed analysis of the proteins contained in samples of only 5,000 cells, which is far less than typical current requirements for 1,000,000 cell samples. Dolomite is now developing a disposable sample system for sample handling and processing, for use by all scientists working in this field.
Entries for this year's competition close on the 25th of November 2013, so if you have discovered some key science but are struggling to work out how to productize on the idea – either financially, technically or commercially – then enter now! Click on the company website link below for more information.