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Department of Pharmacology

 
Congratulations to Anna Suchankova

The Young Entrepreneur Scheme (YES) is an innovative global competition that gives early career researchers from diverse backgrounds a practical insight into how to commercialise science and engineering ideas.

University teams develop a business plan for a start-up company revolving around hypothetical but plausible idea, tackling seemingly impossible challenges like various diseases, aging population, and global warming.

Over the past eight months, me and my team have received training in business planning, intellectual property, regulatory affairs, finance, commercialisation, and marketing including a three-day intensive workshop delivered by leading industry figures.

We have developed GeneSense, a liquid biopsy at home test that detects drug resistance mutations in the blood of cancer patients and successfully pitched our idea to venture capital investors, winning £2,500 and an invitation to the BioIndustry Garden Party.

Along the way, our team has greatly benefited from being in the Cambridge biotechnology clusters and receiving expert advice from people like Michael Salako, from StartCodon, who generously helped us perfect our presentation for the final.

Photo - left to right: William McCarthy (PhD in Chemistry), Neesha Kara (Phd in Oncology and Cancer Biology) Sabila Chilaeva (PhD in Genetics), Anna Suchankova (PhD in Pharmacology) and Daniel Kottmann (PhD in Medicine).