Heart attack caused by rupture of unstable plaque in the coronary arteries is the number one cause of death worldwide. 

Melbourne-based medtech company Nirtek, is using laser technology discovered at the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, to develop the first intra-coronary guidewire device for the detection of unstable plaque to prevent heart attacks and save lives. Nirtek’s device has been awarded funding through MTPConnect’s Targeted Translation Research Accelerator program for Diabetes & Cardiovascular Disease, made possible by the Medical Research Future Fund.

MTPConnect hosts Caroline Duell and Lauren Kelly, Senior Director of the TTRA Program are joined by Nirtek’s CEO Matthew Hoskin, who shares the challenges of their medtech journey as the company prepares for a capital raise and works towards creating a prototype for clinical trials. Matthew also explains the value of the support provided by the Medical Device Partnering Program (MDPP), a TTRA venture partner, and MDPP’s Olivia White joins the discussion.

As the world’s largest Biotech convention, BIO 2022, gets underway in San Diego California after a 2 year hiatus due to pandemic restrictions, MTPConnect’s team is on the ground promoting Australian companies at the Australian Pavilion (led by AusBiotech) and attending various events and meetings. In this pacey compilation, MTPConnect CEO Stuart Dignam catches up with the Hon. Stephen Dawson MLC, WA’s Minister for Innovation, ICT and Medical Research on the WA Mission to the US.  Stuart talks with ARIA Research CEO and Co-founder Robert Yearsley about the opportunities for connecting at BIO 2022 for their medtech venture. Argenica Therapeutics MD and CEO Dr Liz Dallimore from WA highlights opportunities to meet investors and potential partners as the company moves its novel drug candidate, a neuroprotective therapeutic, towards commercialisation. Distinguished Professor Lyn Griffiths from QUT and Director of the Bridge Program, is in San Diego with nine Australian pitch winners from the Bridge Program (which equips researchers and entrepreneurs with the knowledge, skills and networks needed to commercialise new pharmaceuticals) who are visiting multinational pharma companies. And finally, Stuart wraps up with a final word from Australia’s Ambassador to the USA, Hon. Arthur Sinodinos AO, about Australia being open for business and in the sights of US industry.

The last few years have been dominated by the global fight against COVID-19 and research efforts continue in search of new treatments and vaccines to save lives.

Melbourne-based Dimerix Bioscience is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company investigating a new treatment for respiratory complications as a result of COVID 19 – which was selected for inclusion in the global WHO-endorsed clinical study REMAP-CAP investigating community-acquired pneumonia.

Through MTPConnect’s Biomedical Translation Bridge (BTB) Program, Dimerix was awarded $1 million in MRFF-funding for this COVID-19 related project. 

MTPConnect host Caroline Duell catches up with Dr Robert Shepherd, Research & Development Director at Dimerix Bioscience to find out more about this potential new treatment, the benefits and challenges of being part of a unique adaptive clinical trial program and how they managed to manufacture doses for the trial during the pandemic. https://dimerix.com/

Uniquest is a Venture Partner in the BTB Program, and Cecile Francis, Uniquest’s BTB Program Project Manager joins the discussion.  https://uniquest.com.au/

Around the world, approximately 16,500 people die from sudden cardiac arrest every day due to delayed access to a defibrillator.

We speak with Donovan Casey, co-founder, CEO and Executive chairman of Rapid Response Revival, a Sydney based medical technology startup hoping to improve these odds of survival by developing CellAED - a life-saving portable defibrillator for use in homes, workplaces and community spaces.  

Co-hosts Caroline Duell and Dr Duncan Macinnis find out about the ten-year story behind Rapid Response Revival, the challenges of manufacturing medtech in the COVID era and how the product’s registration in Europe and other markets around the world is a promising step. https://rapidresponserevival.com/

Is your startup on a mission to address a major public health challenge? Do you need the know-how, guidance and connections to get investment-ready and rapidly grow? 

MTPConnect co-hosts Caroline Duell and Dr Duncan Macinnis, Director Stakeholder Engagement for NSW and ACT, look into the unique Health 10X Accelerator delivered by the George Institute of Global Health and UNSW Founders, which is supported by our REDI initiative. Dina Titkova, the Health 10x program Manager at UNSW Founders, explains how and why companies should apply for the 2022 program by 15 May 2022.

And we meet Sam van Bohemen, co-founder and CEO at Nuroflux, a Sydney-based start- up developing a portable, digital device for continuous monitoring of brain activity to revolutionise stroke patient care. Nuroflux took part in Health 10X, and is about to kick off their pre-seed raise to fund the development of their clinical program for device registration.
https://nuroflux.com/

Applications close 15 May 2022.  For more information about Health 10x Accelerator program and to apply: https://unswfounders.com/health10x-accelerator

We speak to Robert Yearsley, CEO and co-founder of ARIA Research, a company developing a new medical device - a non-surgical and non-invasive Electronic Vision Aid in the form of a pair of glasses - which enables blind and vision-impaired people to see through sound. 

ARIA has been developed in collaboration with University of Sydney, University of Technology Sydney, Blind Citizens Australia and World Access for the Blind Australia. MTPConnect is supporting ARIA's research to develop a prototype of the glasses for clinical trials through the BioMedtech Horizons program. 

Co-hosts Caroline Duell and Dr Gerard Gibbs check in with Robert on ARIA’s progress towards clinical trials and find out why the device could be a game changer for 338 million people worldwide who live with visual impairment. Check out ARIA’s website: https://ariaresearch.com.au/

In the first face-to-face podcast interview since January 2020, we speak with Dr Mat McGann, co-founder and CEO of Health Horizon, a health innovation tracking and discovery platform - making it easy to follow the progress of medical innovations around the world. MTPConnect supported Health Horizon's development through the Growth Centre Project Fund in 2017. Co-hosts Caroline Duell and Elizabeth Stares find out about the company’s commercialisation journey in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic - with 4,000 users tracking 6,000 innovation activities around the world.  Check it out at www.thehealthhorizon.com

The podcast was recorded in Canberra where MTPConnect was supporting Science and Technology Australia’s Science Meets Parliament event and the National Press Club Address by Professor Mark Hutchinson.

The show takes a look at how we can take more great Australian science from the lab bench into the boardroom. And create companies, jobs and products. Joining the podcast is Misha Schubert, Chief Executive Officer at Science & Technology Australia and Professor Mark Hutchinson, the new President at Science & Technology Australia. Science & Technology Australia (STA) is Australia’s peak body in science and technology - representing more than 80,000 scientists and technologists. Professor Hutchinson is an entrepreneur, innovator and neuroscientist at the ARC Centre for Excellence in Nanoscale Biophotonics based at the University of Adelaide who recently made an address to the National Press Club on this topic, during STA's Science meets Parliament event (supported by MTPConnect).

The Clinical Translation and Commercialisation - Medtech (CTCM) program, delivered by MTPConnect, is offered under the 2020 Early Stage Translation and Commercialisation Support Grant of the Medical Research Future Fund's Medical Research Commercialisation Initiative. The $19.75 million CTCM program is targeting Australian small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and aims to boost commercialisation of home-grown medical devices.

The CTCM program can provide between $250,000 and $1.5 million to SMEs to support early clinical development of medical devices with commercial potential. The first funding round of our CTCM program is  open for applications until 11 March 2022. If you missed the Information Session webinar, listen to it here to see if your company is eligible for funding support. 

Hear from MTPConnect's Dr Duncan Macinnis, MTAA's Ian Burgess, MDPP's Dr Andrew Milligan and Cicada Innovation's Dr Dharmica Mistry on applying for funds to develop medical devices.

We get an update on the development of Australia’s world-first Bionic Eye System. Similar to Cochlear’s bionic ear, it involves a visual implant to give functional vision to people who’ve lost their sight due to the genetic condition, Retinitis Pigmentosa.  

The consortium behind this innovation, which has just been granted a Breakthrough Device designation from the US FDA, includes Bionic Vision Technologies, the Centre for Eye Research Australia, the Bionics Institute, CSIRO’s Data61 and the University of Melbourne.

Dr Ash Attia, the CEO of Bionic Vision Technologies and Associate Professor Penelope Allen, a Principal Investigator at the Centre for Eye Research Australia join the podcast to discuss the importance of the bionic eye breakthrough.

MTPConnect co-hosts are Caroline Duell and Dr Gerard Gibbs, Senior Director of our BioMedTech Horizons program which is providing $1 million of MRFF funding to support this project.