05 Nov, 2018

SPARK Co-Lab has closed its doors and will cease to operate after late November 2018. Everyone who has been involved in SPARK Co-Lab is grateful for the opportunities and support we have received in the three years since we opened for business. Above all, we are proud of the impact SPARK Co-Lab has had on Perth's medical start-up community as a result of our founders having the foresight to see how Perth could benefit from the Stanford SPARK and Biodesign methodologies, and adapting these

23 Oct, 2018

Thursday night is our last Actuator Series session for the year, and promises to be a great topic to wrap things up.  Join us to hear more from our panellists on how and when to engage with industry as an early-stage medical start up, the pros and cons of different ways of working with industry, from partnership to joint venture, to licensing, distribution and working with sub-contractors. Between them our panellists have a wealth of experience - read on to find out more about their backgrounds

10 Oct, 2018

This week's Actuator session will explore the world of In Vitro Diagnostics and the opportunities that exist for scientists working in this field.  We will be joined by Pauline Zaenker, a junior researcher and PhD candidate from Edith Cowan University who is part of a Perth-based team that has developed the world's first blood test that can detect early-stage melanoma.  The test uses IVD techniques to detect the auto-antibodies the body reduces in response to melanoma. Melanoma is usually found

11 Sep, 2018

The regulation of medical devices by the TGA, FDA and other bodies means that developing software for medical devices is more complex than other software development.  In this week's Acutator Series session, we'll be looking closely at the different aspects developers should be aware of, whether they're developing a stand-alone software product or something embedded in another product, from the implications of developments in machine learning and cloud computing , to IP, regulatory and patent

26 Aug, 2018

This week's Actuator Series event is a special event in many ways, not only because it will be held as a daytime event on Friday 31 August from 10am-2pm, but also because of its venue at  PlusLife, the Perth Bone and Tissue Bank in Midland.  PlusLife is the only bone bank in Western Australia and one of the largest  facilities of its type in Australia.  From humble beginnings on a benchtop in the M Block at QE2 Medical Centre, in 2016 PlusLife received a $10 million State government grant to

13 Aug, 2018

We've got a great line-up of creators and innovators as speakers for our Actuator Series event this Thursday on Prototyping for Medical Devices. Each has a unique set of experiences to share about the different stages of the prototyping process, whether early stage ideation or later stage design verification. Join us at 5:30pm on Thursday at CERI to hear what they have to say and ask questions, but until then read on to find out more. Megan Gobey, CEO and Founder, The Inventor's Hu Megan

29 Jul, 2018

Biacor Pty Ltd came about as a result of its founders' participation in the 2017 SPARK Co-Lab Design Course (now known as Perth Biodesign).  Runners up of that year's Pitch Night event, Biacor is currently developing AbyWin™, a novel diagnostic which aims to improve the way clinicians diagnose prosthetic joint infections. Beyond its core aim of providing better outcomes and reassurance for prosthetic joint patients, the device has been designed to improve clinician confidence and save costs to

16 Jul, 2018

We're excited to kick off the second half of the year for Actuator Series with a session on clinical needs assessment - specifically, how to identify the right unmet clinical needs that can provide a foundation for successful product development. The ability to do this lies at the heart of the SPARK Co-Lab approach to solving real-life medical and pharmaceutical challenges, and taking these solutions out of the laboratory and into commercial and clinical reality. Slides from this session are

12 Jul, 2018

Congratulations to Perth Biodesign course director Dr Matthew Oldakowski and SPARK Co-Lab founder A/Prof Peter Santa Maria, who through their work at Stanford University in the US have been awarded the 2018 Robert Howard Next Step Award. Matt and Peter are part of the team that has developed EarBuddy, a proof-of-concept device that non-invasively addresses a common ear disease in young children. EarBuddy helps ventilate children’s middle ears as they swallow, treating a condition called Otitis