ABLE, Dept of Biotechnology conducts 5th edition of BEST awards in Bangalore

IT Chennai’s team bagged first prize for an innovative glucose sensor

The Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprises (ABLE) recently conducted its 5th edition of Biotechnology Entrepreneurship Student Team (BEST) event, in collaboration with the Department of Biotechnology in Bangalore. The event witnessed 149 teams vying for top honours with 20 of them travelling to the Biotech Capital of India.

The Stanford India Biodesign, AIIMS team won the joint third place for designing a wearable smart hand sanitiser for healthcare professionals	The IISc, Bangalore team won the second place for its project on highly sensitive optical detection of malaria pigments for malaria detection

Five teams succeeded in bagging the three top spots out of the 20. With their innovative glucose sensor the youngest team (average age of less than 22 years) from IIT Madras was declared the top team whereas the teams from IISc and Centre for Converging Technologies CCT, University of Rajasthan and Amity Institute of Pharmacy, Noida combo team were joint second. Stanford India BioDesign Center, AIIMS- New Delhi and ICT -Mumbai bagged the joint third. The top five teams will attend ABLE’s BioInvest Conference to present their business plans to venture capitalists, private equity fund managers and other investors.

Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai bagged the joint third place for its project on dual stent therapy for tumour targeting and capturing circulating tumour cell as a novel approach to prevent metastasis	The comb team from Centre for Converging Technologies, University of Rajasthan and Amity Institute of Pharmacy,Noida bagged a joint second prize for coming up with a diagnostic kit for the early stage detection of female breast cancer by a simple blood test

Dr PM Murali, President, ABLE said, “This was the essence of young Indian entrepreneurs’ innovative thinking. Some of us who were part of the jury felt absolutely thrilled to be associated with this programme. Ultimately, we are beginning to realise that Indian science is in the capable hands of these youngsters. We are thankful to the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology for their continued support and encouragement in conducting the BEST programme.” After two and a half days of mentoring and interacting with company heads like Kiran M Shaw, Managing Director, Biocon, Anand Anandkumar, Managing Director, CellWorks, Sohang Chatterjee, Chief Executive Officer, Theramyt Biologicals, Deepanwita Chattopadhaya, Managing Director, IKP and others, over 90 students from 20 teams presented their case to a jury of six hardcore professionals. Each team had 20 minutes to prove the scientific and business merit of their idea or product.

EP News Bureau – Mumbai