Team:Queens Canada/Entrepreneurship
Networking
Members of the team have attended events and spoke with experts in the field to gain insights on the process of patenting, registering intellectual property, and creating a start-up company.
Canada SynBio 2019
Members of QGEM with Christina from Ginko Bioworks and Team Lead of Western iGEM
Canada SynBio is an annual event held by Ontario Genomics in Toronto. QGEM was very fortunate to see seminars delivered by prominent researchers and industry representatives like Dr. George Church (Harvard University), Christina Agapakis (Creative Director of Ginko Bioworks), Sandy Marshal (Executive Director of Bioindustrial Innovation Canada), and Dr. Bettina Hamelin (CEO of Ontario Genomics). We had paid extra attention to the Pitch Competition were start-up companies made presentations about their work and business models for support from the investor panel. The wining company, FREDsense, is a Canadian startup that uses synthetically engineering biosensors for water contamination detection. We later spoke with David Lloyd, CEO of FREDsense, for advice on transitioning from science to business and challenges in building a company. We were also lucky enough to have a chat with Dr. Bettina about the potential of iGEM teams getting support from Ontario Genomics as well as Christine from Ginko Bioworks on methods of combating public resistance for genetically engineered products. Additionally, we met with Kevin Chen, Queen's Canada 2012 alumnus and the CEO of Hyansynth Bio, who started a company on using a yeast-based system to produce cannabinoids. We learned the challenges of leading a biotechnology start-up, fundraising, and the time and hardworking it took behind the scene.
Click here and here to learn more about this event.
Global Biomedical Design Conference 2019
The Global Biomedical Design Conference aims to empower local innovators to globalize the principles of universal design for a sustainable impact. QGEM was invited to attend and share our path on applying synthetic biology to solve real-life issues. We presented our past and present projects and networked with industry representatives to discuss methods of funding acquisition.
Synthetic Biology Symposium 3.0
We attended the Synthetic Biology Symposium held by the University of Waterloo in May. We learned a lot from their workshops and seminars, and we were particularly excited to meet Mr. Graham Mckinnon, founder and owner of Carbon Patent Group, who shared thoughts on the industry and the details and types of intellectual property registration.
Click here to learn more about this event.
Industry Parter
We were lucky to have the support of our industry partner, Orpheus Medica, whom we have met during Canada SynBio 2019 conference. We visited their office in Toronto in May and had a long discussion regarding the development and utility of our project. They have provided us very useful advice and insights into the industry.
Topics of Discussion
- Whether our GFP will interfere with the antibody domain and specificity
- Potentially providing us with tagged antibodies and their epitopes to show proof of concept
- THC Metabolites Collection and Detection
- Seek advice on laboratory techniques and pipetting robot
- Possibilities of expanding our project and run drug testing on other bodily fluids
- Potential of commercialization and sharing of intellectual property
On Marketing and Product Design:
- Validate with end users – Law Enforcement
- Ensure the flexibility of our device, it should be able to detect THC in a variety of bodily fluids (saliva, blood, urine)
- Blood is what they use in US for roadside testing so that could be important
- Urine is for clinical testing
- Become familiar with our target metabolites and possibilities of false positives
- Potentially testing for CBD and other components that are not intended to measure toxicity, this could help with the standardization of these concentrations in the industry
- Product extensions – other drugs/ substances in the same device
Marketing Directions
Read more about our public survey.
SWOT Analysis
