Bioinnovation Days is an international hackathon with the goal to find novel solutions to challenges in the health, food and biotechnology industry, in addition giving the participating teams the opportunity to develop their very own biocompany. This year the event took place in the span of 3 weeks and two winners were chosen to represent Estonia in the European final.
Bioinnovation Days were organised by University of Tartu, Tartu Biotechnology Park and Bioscience Students’ Association. This year’s event in Estonia was bigger and longer than it has ever been before, giving the teams more time to develop their ideas. During the three weeks the participants had the opportunity to listen to different presentations and experience stories from professionals and work with mentors. One of the mentors was our very own Stephan Goldenbaum, who also shared his experience in entrepreneurship during the entrepreneurs panel and was part of the jury, who chose the winners of the event.
The panel gave the participants an opportunity to ask all kinds of questions and it was not wasted. The questions varied from what kind educational background should employees of biocompanies have to different regulations about bioproducts. There definitely wasn’t enough time to get answers to all the questions during the panel, so contestants surrounded Stephan afterwards, to get answers to all burning questions, even when the event was officially over.
While the jury was deliberating on the winner, it was very nice to hear from the participants and also from the organisers how happy and impressed they were that Stephan was willing to come to the event, give out such good advice and be so invested in helping out. At the beginning of the event there were some participants, who had not heard about Solis BioDyne, but by the end of the event it was definitely a fan favourite.
As Stephan said, “ It's really great to see how participants do everything they can, to resolve problems and give innovative solutions in the health and biotech world. Sustainability and innovation have always been cornerstones of Solis BioDyne, so it was an honour to discuss and brainstorm with them. There is a lot of potential growing out from these kinds of events.”
In the end, everybody was a winner, although two teams were chosen to represent Estonia in the European final. These two teams were Microns, whose idea was microneedle patches to diagnose infectious diseases, and Muscle Capture, whose idea was using EMG and motion capture to prevent muscle injuries.
The Solis BioDyne team wishes them good luck in the European final and keeps fingers crossed for future innovations!
Since October is a National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we decided to take a closer look into the topic focusing on PCR/qPCR part in diagnostics.
Using hot-start DNA polymerase helps you to avoid primer-dimers and unspecific amplification. In this article we explain benefits and disadvantages of each most common method.
Jana compares her career at Solis BioDyne to rally, saying there are turns and tracks with different covers, some easier to get through than others. The important thing is to keep your eye on the prize, keep your gears in good order and get along with your co-driver – that is the secret to good teamwork and success.
Whenever you are planning to do a PCR experiment, whether it is end-point PCR, qPCR, RT-PCR, or some other sort of PCR, you are going to need primers. Getting the right primers can be difficult and you can't just go and buy random primers either, you have to design them first.
