Pharmatics wins inaugural Bioquarter innovation prize
Pharmatics Limited, creators of novel software intended to reduce the time required for drug development, has won the Edinburgh BioQuarter Innovation Competition 2011.
Pharmatics was founded by Dr Felix Agakov and Professor Paul McKeigue to address the challenges of exploiting vast arrays of modern biological data to speed up discovery and testing of new drugs. "By applying cutting edge machine learning techniques, we reduce very complex data to a handful of the most promising factors”, said Dr Agakov.
Cytomos Ltd, which has developed a device for sorting cells in laboratory studies that will create a step-change in early-stage drug development, was named as the first runner-up in the competition. AccuoPept, a company that assists in the identification of biomarkers for cancer and other conditions through the development of new reagents, was named as the second runner-up. Acid Test Ltd, which has created a new means of testing the safety of drinking water, and CerebrAid ™, a device for cooling the brain after traumatic injury, were named as second-round winners and receive prize money of £3,000.
Pharmatics aims to change the way large-scale biological and medical data are analysed by providing intelligent software and services to uncover useful structure in complex and incomplete biological measurements. Our technology will help to discover causal biomarkers, focus clinical trials, and accelerate drug development.
There was a consistently high level of quality in the ten final entries for this inaugural innovation competition. In congratulating the finalists and winners, we also look forward to next year's competition, when we hope to uncover many more great ideas from Edinburgh's thriving scientific research community.
There was a great response to this year's competition. Next year we hope to engage even more researchers with the message that scientific innovation can bring real rewards outside the lab - not just to researchers, but to patients and their families as well.