Welcome to the second edition of the UniQuest newsletter for 2025 - a collaborative initiative of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research & Innovation) and UniQuest, The University of Queensland's commercialisation company.

A team from UniQuest joined others from across UQ to attend the BIO2025 International Convention at Boston in June, showcasing the brilliant technology from UQ researchers that is available for partnering and licensing on the world stage. Our team have condensed their key insights from the event. Check it out if you're a researcher in the life sciences space who is considering commercialising your research.

This quarter we celebrated vital grant funding that will advance a potential new therapy for prostate cancer, in a joint project from the lab of Professor Greg Monteith and our drug discovery arm, QEDDI.

There's still time to register to attend UniQuest's annual Research Commercialisation Workshop, to be held at the end of July over two days. If you haven't yet had the chance to attend, make this your year and follow the link below to sign up.

We trust you enjoy this edition.

The UniQuest team who attended BIO2025 in Boston (left to right): Senior Director, Commercialisation - Life Sciences, David Markwell; Director of Business Development - QEDDI, Laura Kearney; Senior Director, Commercialisation - Life Sciences, Dr Tamsin Terry; Head of Life Sciences Dr Craig Belcher; and Associate, Commercialisation - Life Sciences, Dr Adam Stephenson. Not pictured: Director, Commercialisation - Life Sciences, Dr Idalia Ridley and Head of Strategic Partnerships, Dr Andrew Harvey, 

The BIO International Convention held at Boston in June offered a compelling glimpse into the future of therapeutic development.

The UniQuest team held more than 95 meetings with companies in the life science space, seeking feedback and interest in specific projects in the UniQuest pipeline from UQ researchers, as well as gaining insights on specific industry needs.

Click here for their key takeaways across antibody innovation, translational pain models, peptide therapeutics, obesity and ageing biology, evolving biotech partnerships, women's health and AI-driven drug discovery.
 

Hot takes

• Accelerated: Congratulations to UQ School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science's Associate Professor Rahul Sharma and Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology's Associate Professor Viktor Vegh who received significant funding to progress projects under Australia's Economic Accelerator Innovate round. 

• Ovarian cancer: A diagnostic screening test developed by ASX-listed company Inoviq and UQ's Professor Carlos Salomon has achieved 77 percent sensitivity at 99.6 percent specificity for detection of ovarian cancer at all stages.

• Innovation champion: UniQuest CEO Dr Dean Moss spoke at The Group of Eight's inaugural Australian Cyber Exchange on how to build Australia's innovation capacity by better connecting universities, industry and government. As Chair of the Go8 Innovation and Commercialisation Group, he also presented to the Russell Group of Universities in the UK an overview of UQ's model of commercialisation through UniQuest.

• Irish investment: Congratulations to UQ Frazer Institute's Professor Kiarash Khosrotehrani and Dr Jatin Patel (now ex-UQ) whose stem cell technology was licensed to Irish company Haon Life Science with an AU$18m investment to develop a vital treatment for neonatal brain injury.

• Quantum pitch: Congratulations to Senior Director, Commercialisation - Physical Sciences, Peter Baines, who pitched the technology behind UQ-spinout VeriQuantix (from researchers at UQ's School of Mathematics and Physics) at the Australian Cyber Exchange Conference ACE25 Showcase startup pitch competition and won first place (out of 27).

• SHAPE spotlight: UniQuest's Head of Social and Behavioural Sciences Anne Bannister and Head of Marketing and Communications Nicole Cowan attended the Knowledge Exchange UK conference in Birmingham from June 3-4, reinforcing the role of non-STEM research to tackle major challenges like inequality, climate change and public health.

Dr Yvonne Booth

Senior Associate, Commercialisation -
Life Sciences

Yvonne grew up on the west coast of Scotland but fell in love with Australia on a short family holiday to Perth when she was just 16.

She studied Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Sheffield and did an exchange year abroad at UQ, obtaining an International Postgraduate Research Scholarship that allowed her to return to UQ to complete a PhD in Organic Chemistry.

Yvonne returned to the UK to apply her skills and training in a pharmaceutical industry-based role and spent several years as a synthetic chemist at Peakdale Molecular Ltd, providing contract chemistry services.

"At this point I wanted to move away from the lab bench but still have a role in science being used in an applied, commercial way," she said. "So, the logical step was to pivot to the world of patents."

Yvonne spent two years as a trainee patent attorney with Marks and Clerk LLP, training under qualified UK and European patent attorneys and gaining practical experience of patent requirements, including drafting and prosecution.

Her passion for Australia never dimmed, and Yvonne returned to Brisbane in 2015 to commence a role at UniQuest.

She said it was a great opportunity to use her scientific and IP background and extend into some of the more commercial aspects of business development and licensing.

"I've worked on a range of life sciences technologies for human health with a focus on therapeutics and particularly small molecules, peptides and more recently, encompassing radiopharmaceuticals," Yvonne said of her time in the Life Sciences team.

"It's incredibly gratifying trying to help scientific research transition from an academic lab and out into a commercial environment where it can potentially benefit patients."

Contact Yvonne.

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.