It was now day five – the last day of the Testa Challenge 2020. Not even such an intense week could bring down the energy levels of the Testa Challenge participants. Ambition, passion and drive are something these participants brought in abundance. So much that when the time came, no one really wanted to leave!
Presentation of analysis
First up on day five was the presentation of analysis of the downstream processes samples. Ann Eckersten had been analyzing samples using the xP Workstation from Gyro Protein Technologies. Now she and her collogue Ian Sheldrake dedicated the day to help participants better understand the system, the results, as well as run some of the collected samples.
To finish off the carefully selected topics of guest speakers, Oliver Hardick, Business Leader at Cytiva, presented his journey with Puridify. The Puridify company was a spin-out from University College London that later became the GE Healthcare’s ”Fibro Select” product). The talk provided great discussions on how a small start-up can become the next industry revolutionizing technology. The lessons learnt and the experience shared by Oliver certainly left food for thought for the participants.
With only a few hours left
With only a few hours left in the labs it became hectic as some of the companies began packing away their instrumentation. Some where in the middle of processing their results. Others were still running their system working in tandem with the AKTA Pilot 600. The Pilot 600 is a true workhorse when it comes to protein purification that you like to run as much as possible. All this while also continuing to network, speaking to R&D scientists to learn more how they could improve their innovation. As David Levy, Product Manager at Scitara highlighted ”Learning from the industry”.
The challenge continues…
It was now close to 4 PM as we gathered all participants for the wrap-up meeting. The week had been very intense and the open attitude among the participants had sparked a lot of new connections and new collaborations. Perhaps one thought Friday was the day when we were closing the project and start reflecting on the results. Instead Friday was just the beginning on a new journey.
With a pitch session upcoming the following week for the companies to present their innovation to a panel of investors, chief technical officers and innovation leaders, their reserve energy tanks are put to the test.
Testa Challenge; to verify innovation, accelerate industrialization and secure excellence
The Testa Challenge was meant to be way for the partakers to scale their companies. But also, a new way for the Testa Center to work closer with ground-breaking technology. Do you have a project that you are interested in exploring further, why not speak to someone at the Testa Center to help with you next project?
Read more about the Testa Challenge
- Apply for the Testa Challenge before the 17th of January
- Day 1: Don’t try this at home, or in GMP (try it at the Testa Challenge!)
- Day 2: Lights, Camera and Action – Upstream in a bioreactor with cameras, sample analytics, in-bag sensors, parallel shake flask reactors and in-line mass spectrometry
- Day 3: We will make it happen!
- Day 4: Strategies on how to be successful in biopharma
