| | | | Welcome to the third edition of the UniQuest newsletter for 2024 - a collaborative initiative of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research & Innovation) and UniQuest, The University of Queensland's commercialisation company.
A highlight this quarter was the Series B capital raise of UQ start-up Vicebio, using molecular clamp technology invented by Professor Paul Young, Professor Keith Chappell and Professor Daniel Watterson. It's an incredible result and a testament to the research team and their supporters, who were also among the first to develop and test a COVID-19 vaccine in a phase 1 clinical trial. Congratulations to everyone
involved.
In other news, Latin America will soon reap the benefits of four avocado rootstocks thanks to a licensing deal brokered with Chilean nursery producers Grupo Hijuelas. As always, UQ researchers, with support from our team of commercialisation experts, continue to feature prominently in community events, with ed-tech platform RiPPLE named a finalist in the Queensland AI Awards.
We trust you enjoy this edition. | | | Professor Paul Bonnington
Interim Deputy Vice-Chancellor
(Research & Innovation) | | |
Dr Dean Moss
CEO, UniQuest Pty Ltd | | |
Newsletter in Brief
- Vicebio capital raise: UQ molecular clamp tech start-up raises US$100m.
- QDDA launches: Small molecule alliance grows discovery capability.
- Ed-tech makes a splash: RiPPLE named finalist in Queensland AI Awards.
- Avocado boost: UQ rootstock technology to grow Latin American market.
- Hot takes: Quantum news, cane toads, Vaxxas and the KCA conference.
- Who Are We: Meet UniQuest's Margie Mahon.
| | | | | | | The Vicebio team at The University of Queensland (L to R): UQ's Professor Daniel Watterson, Dr Julie Dutton, Professor Keith Chappell, Dr Andrew Young and Dr Noushin Jaberolansar. | | Mega US$100m raise for UQ molecular clamp startup Vicebio
The University of Queensland startup Vicebio has raised US$100m in Series B financing to produce a new pipeline of vaccines against respiratory infections.
The company is based on the Molecular Clamp technology invented by UQ researchers Professor Paul Young, Professor Daniel Watterson and Professor Keith Chappell and was founded in 2019 with $31m investment from European venture capital firm Medixci.
The US$100m Vicebio Series B raise was led by US crossover investor TCGX, and included Goldman Sachs, Avoro Ventures, venBio, the UniQuest Extension Fund and
Medixci.
ViceBio's lead product is a new vaccine against two respiratory viruses, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and human metapneumovirus (hMPV), which cause serious infections. Additional vaccines against influenza and parainfluenza are also in development.
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, UQ with funding from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation (CEPI) was among the first to successfully develop and test a COVID-19 vaccine in a phase 1 clinical trial.
The CEPI-funded vaccine was shown to be effective against COVID, but it also triggered an undesired interference with some diagnostic tests and could not progress.
The UQ team was able to subsequently develop a new generation of the vaccine, devoid of the interference issue. Vicebio will take this new version of the Molecular Clamp into phase 1 clinical trials this year. In August, Vicebio
began a clinical trial of a combination RSV/hMPV virus using this new version of the molecular clamp.
The start-up was a finalist in the Australian Financial Review's Higher Education Awards research commercialisation category in August and the Australian Commercialisation Awards announced in October. | | | | | 
RiPPLE ed-tech platform makes a splash at Queensland AI
Awards
UQ Institute for Teaching and Learning Innovation Associate Professor Hassan Khosravi, senior software engineer Nick Joseph and the team behind RiPPLE were named a finalist in the Queensland AI Research Project of the Year at the Queensland AI Awards 2024.
RiPPLE is a web-based SaaS ed-tech platform used by university educators that uses adaptive AI to personalise learning by recommending tailored resources to support students in their academic journey. The technology deepens student understanding of material by asking them to participate in the generation, review and assessment of their own education materials.
The technology has been a leader in cutting-edge research on student interactions with AI, the creation of student-generated learning resources, peer evaluations, and more recently, the perceptions and effectiveness of generative AI feedback on student work.
RiPPLE has been adopted in more than 200 courses across diverse disciplines and has engaged more than 55,000 students, leading to the creation of more than 200,000 earning resources and the completion of 700,000 peer
evaluations.
Check out the video on RiPPLE.
Pictured above (L to R): Anne Bannister, Head of Social and Behavioural Sciences at UniQuest; Nick Joseph, Senior Web Developer and RiPPLE co-creator; Professor Karen Benson, Director, ITaLI; and Dr Greg Winslett, Deputy-Director, Digital Learning at ITaLI.
| | | | | | | Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation's Centre for Horticultural Science's Dr Chris O'Brien inspects avocados prepared using clonal rootstocks. The technology has been licensed to a Chilean nursery. | | Holy guacamole! Avocado tissue-culture tech hits Latin America
A tissue-culture propagation technology developed at The University of Queensland that yields hundreds of plants from a single cutting will bolster avocado production across Latin America.Developed at the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation's Centre for
Horticultural Science by Professor Neena Mitter and her team, the technology will increase the production of four key avocado rootstocks in South America to meet growing demand.
The propagation technology was licensed to the Chilean nursery Grupo Hijuelas by UniQuest and cuts the time, energy and resources it takes to prepare rootstocks.
The deal, led by UniQuest's Claire Nock, was the recipient
of the 2024 UniQuest Commercialisation Impact Award. | | | | | | Hot takes - Vaxxas: Check out the video about this exciting UQ start-up, founded by us in 2011, and its research commercialisation journey.
| |
| | Director - Social and Behavioural
Sciences. Prior to joining UniQuest, Margie was consulting to the University of Newcastle in 2023, supporting their ventures program in social sciences. She led the HASS business development and innovation team at University of Melbourne from 2017 to 2023. Margie was a founding non-executive director of University of Melbourne startup Left Right Hook and during this time supported five other social and behavioural sciences teams on their startup journeys. She also led programs to increase support to indigenous academics and help them share their cultural IP through micro-credentials.
Margie brings experience from
leadership roles in higher education, agriculture, health service delivery and professional services. Two industry career highlights to date are seven years with Meat and Livestock Australia as the OHS research project leader leading the Q fever research and vaccination program and four years with Rural health Workforce Programs as Director of Workforce Programs to support recruitment and retention of doctors into rural and remote Australia.
Margie has bachelor's degrees from QUT in Environmental Health and Health Promotion. She is currently undertaking a Master of Social Impact. Early in her career she was a recipient of a Churchill Fellowship, awarded for her work in agricultural health and safety injury prevention programs.
With her return home to Queensland Margie is reconnecting with her family who have farms in Central Queensland and the Darling Downs.
She said she was looking forward to new opportunities at UniQuest and working with UQ researchers.
"My upbringing, personal and professional interests have made me very passionate about equity of access to health services and education, and indigenous culture. I am passionate about ensuring this is made available to the community for profit and purpose organisations through commercialisation," she said.
Contact Margie. | |
| | | UniQuest acknowledges the Traditional Owners and their custodianship of the lands on which The University of Queensland and UniQuest are situated.
We pay our respects to their Ancestors and their descendants, who continue cultural and spiritual connections to Country. We recognise their valuable contributions to Australian and global society. | | | | |
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