The ceremony of the Bluepharma | University of Coimbra Innovation Award 2015 took place on Thursday 7 July, in the Senate Room of the Rectory of the University of Coimbra.
The winner of the Bluepharma | University of Coimbra Innovation Award 2015 is the scientific project "Bug-Killer", developed by Dr. Lino Ferreira and Dr. Akhilesh Rai of the Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology (CNC).
This project plans to develop a new biomedical formulation that combines antimicrobial properties and pro-regenerative, with high antimicrobial efficacy and antigenic and immunomodulatory properties. It aims to address a major public health problem worldwide, related to the lack of new drugs to combat microbial infections and a growing resistance to antibiotics.
In this edition, the jury decided to distinguish three other projects that received Honorable Mentions: "Antimicrobial peptide delivery for tuberculosis therapy", "HydrUStent" and "PRO-DOSE", developed respectively by Prof. Dr. Francisco Miguel Gama, Dr. Ana Rita Duarte and Dr. Luis Moutinho.
The jury of the competition considered that these were the best projects, taking into account evaluation criteria such as merit, originality, innovation, potential contribution and impact of scientific projects, and its differentiation from the competition.
The winning project will receive a money prize of 20,000 euros to support the development of a prototype from a proof-of-concept validated technology. This support could result in an additional investment of 30,000 euros, once proved its market viability.