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. Tickets for this free event 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

06 Jul, 2018

One of the first sessions we ran as part of the Actuator Series this year has also been one of our most popular, and one we continue to get questions and comments about – Project Management for Medical Researchers:  From the Petri Dish to the Gantt Chart.  We're exploring doing a rerun of the session later in the year, but in the meantime thought it might be useful to share some of the tips and tools recommended by our panellists:  Michael Challenor, Cettina Raccuia, Cosimo Santella and Michael

24 Jun, 2018

We're excited to announce the creation of our Alumni Fellows program, an opportunity for some of our past SPARK Co-Lab participants to return in a formal role as mentors to the teams taking part in the Perth Biodesign course. This year we are privileged to have six our alumni agree to share their time and insights to support us in this regard, from across both 2017 and 2016 Design Course (now Perth Biodesign) intakes.  Between them, they have invaluable knowledge to share with this year's

20 Jun, 2018

As promised, we're sharing a recap along with summary slides from last week's Actuator Series session on Risk Management for MedTech Start-Ups - what it is, why you need it, and how to do it.  Risk management is a particularly critical process when it comes to bringing a medical product to market, so anyone considering starting a medical or pharma business should take the time to familiarise themselves with key concepts at the start of their journey. There are many different types of risk that

13 Jun, 2018

This week's Actuator Series session is on the topic of Risk Management - what it is and why this is a mandatory requirement part of the compliance process for both pharmaceutical and medical device companies.  Leading the discussion this week, Actuator Series Course Director Celine Royet will be joined by Daniel Rowe from EY Perth to take us through when and how risk assessment needs to be performed, as well as how to extend your risk management thinking beyond the development and manufacturing

05 Jun, 2018

We're excited to welcome back some familiar faces and long-time SPARK Co-Lab friends as panellists for this week's Actuator session on Understanding Preclinical Requirements.  Join us and learn more about the following aspects of the preclinical development phase including: The pharmaceutical preclinical development path from exploratory research through to advanced preclinical stage Perspectives and  key learnings from pharmaceutical R&D in multinational, ASX-listed, university research,