Scientific Research to Benefit from More Open Innovation

October 6, 2014 By IdeaConnection

cellcultureOpen innovation is giving science a big boost with the announcement of a challenge fund to advance bioelectronic medicines research and the launch of an open innovation stem cell technology center.

 

To foster collaborative research to develop bioelectronic medicines, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has created a $5 million innovation fund. This is on top of the $1 million that GSK has already committed to the Bioelectronics Innovation Challenge.

Revolutionary Approach to Healing

Bioelectronics is a revolutionary new field of medicine that doesn’t rely on drugs to treat diseases. Instead, a tiny implantable device stimulates a specific part of the body to make and release the natural chemicals it needs to heal itself. It is hoped that a range of disorders could be treated in this way including arthritis, diabetes and inflammatory bowel disease.

“We see the development of bioelectronic medicines as a collaborative process that will only be successful with the combined skills of world-leading engineers, physiologists, neuroscientists and informatics experts,” said Moncef Slaoui, Chairman of Global R&D and Vaccines at GSK.

New Open Innovation Stem Cell Technology Center

In other news, Tokyo Electron Limited (TEL) has opened an open innovation center at Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst (SBC) in the United Kingdom.  SBC is the UK’s first open innovation bioscience campus.

The aim of TEL’s new center is to work with a number of research partners in academia and industry to develop hardware and software solutions for stem cell processing technologies. The ultimate goal is to turn smart cell processing technologies into fully automated systems that can safely and cost effectively provide cell lines for research and therapy.

According to Mr. Yoshio Kinoshita, project leader and director of TEL this is “best achieved in an open innovation environment”.

 

 


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