Solving the lab grind (From The Oxford Times)

Solving the lab grind

10:37am Thursday 15th April 2010 in

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Students from three different countries have teamed up to offer an innovative solution to laboratory researchers. Jochen Klingelhoefer, from Germany, came to Oxford to study for a biochemistry doctorate, where he met chemical engineer Camilla Oxley, who is half-German. She had spent seven years working in so-called ‘wet labs’ where chemical solutions are mixed.

They met Finnish computer expert Ville Lehtonen, who is studying for an MBA and was picked by the History Channel in 2009 as one of the eight candidates from the UK as ‘future chief executives’.

Together they set up LabMinds and are developing a bench top machine, EasySolution, that will automate how solutions — liquid mixtures of water, salt and other chemicals employed in almost all life and medical sciences research, which act as both the environment and the reference — are prepared and acquired.

Mr Klingelhoefer said: “The whole idea came from Camilla. We have spent the past eight months in contact with researchers to make sure this is something that they would like.

“Most of the later processes have been automated, but the preparation stage is still done manually. You can buy ready-made solutions, but they are expensive.

“Most of the researchers have doctorates and the process is quite tedious, so it's a bad use of their time.”

They have spent the past year developing the product, called EasySolution, in response to input from researchers in life and biomedical science labs, as well as the food industry.

He said: “It is being designed with a central focus on assisting the researchers as much as possible.”

Their efforts were rewarded last year when they won £7,500 as best company in the Idea Idol competition organised by Oxford Entrepreneurs, a student society of Oxford University. They also received an offer of the equivalent of £2,000 in initial legal support from Henmans solicitors.

Now they are waiting to hear the result of an application for a Government research grant. The rest of the estimated £200,000 to develop a prototype will come from the founders and their families.

“Once we have a prototype, we can use that to raise proper money to transform it into a real product. We also need lab space, but we are operating on a bootstrap at the moment until we hear about the grant.”

n This year's Idea Idol winner, Robert Crawford, was awarded £5,000 for his proposed start-up company Oxford Nanosense. He wants to develop rapid diagnostic tests capable of detecting disease, infection, and foreign pathogens.

He said: “My idea is based on the research I actually do for my doctorate and aims to produce rapid diagnostic biosensors.”

The competition, which takes place each year, gives each team two minutes to pitch their idea and face gruelling questions from a panel of judges for their chance to win a share of £10,000 to pursue their business idea.

o Contact: LabMinds: www.labminds.co.uk Oxford Entrepreneurs: www.oxfordentrepreneurs.co.uk