New Venture Developing a Liquid-based 3D Bioprinting Technology Wins University College Dublin’s 2018 Start-Up of the Year Award
Naiad, founded by Assistant Professor Emmanuel G. Reynaud, UCD School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science and Professor Brian Rodriguez, UCD School of Physics, has won University College Dublin’s (UCD) 2018 Start-Up of the Year Award and a €32,000 prize fund after being declared overall winner of the 2018 UCD VentureLaunch Accelerator Programme.
Naiad's novel liquid-based 3D bioprinting technology helps researchers fabricate highly-reproducible 3D tissue models that better mimic the rich complexity of human tissues, helping to improve drug toxicity and efficacy trials and thereby reducing the high attrition rates associated with drug discovery.
Assistant Professor Emmanuel G. Reynaud, co-founder, Naiad, said, “We are delighted to have won the 2018 UCD Start-up of the Year Award which acknowledges the hard work, dedication and progress of the entire team over the last number of years. We are now seeking to raise an initial €750,000 in funding to support and expand our test sites in leading research institutes and to build our team in anticipation of our first commercial release.”
The overall objective of the annual 3-month UCD VentureLaunch Accelerator Programme, which is delivered at NovaUCD, is to support sustainable and profitable new ventures based on intellectual property emerging from UCD. The programme aims to equip UCD researchers with the knowledge, skills, and understanding required to lead a new commercial venture with global potential.
Tom Flanagan, Director of Enterprise and Commercialisation, UCD said, “At University College Dublin we are strongly committed to delivering impact from our research and innovation activities which are essential drivers of a dynamic economy. Through our VentureLaunch Accelerator Programme we are supporting the UCD research community to deliver such impact by assisting them to accelerate the establishment of new companies which have global market potential.”
The 2018 UCD VentureLaunch Accelerator Programme Showcase and Awards event took place as part of Startup Week Dublin.
Source: UCD Research and Innovation press release
