The AUScelerate Podcast

MTPConnect is delivering the MRFF-funded $19.75 million Clinical Translation and Commercialisation Medtech (CTCM) program to support the development of home-grown medical devices. The program has opened its second and final funding round calling for applications from Australian small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) developing medical device projects for human use, the purpose of which is to dia...

Back in May 2019, MTPConnect launched the Biomedical Translation Bridge (BTB) program , a $22.3 million initiative of the Medical Research Future Fund, supporting the translation of new therapies, technologies and medical devices through to the proof-of-concept stage. In a first for Australia, it did that by pairing funded projects with industry mentors and commercialisation experts. Three years o...

The Australian Centre for Health Services Innovation (AusHSI) is a leading health services research centre, based at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) within the Faculty of Health. The Centre is working with our Targeted Translation Research Accelerator Program providing support and mentoring to TTRA applicants and awardees with standalone behavioural interventions focused on diabetes...

Professor Marshall is a celebrated vaccination researcher, who has been named the 2022 South Australia Australian of the Year. Her work in vaccinology, public health and infectious diseases at the University of Adelaide’s Robinson Research Institute has focused on protecting babies and children from Meningococcal disease.  She led the world’s largest meningococcal B vaccine study in South Australi...

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has been described as a ‘silent pandemic’, and now takes more lives than malaria and HIV globally, and in Australia, over 1,600 deaths were attributed to AMR in 2019. CARB-X (Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator) is a global non-profit partnership focused on supporting antibacterial research, based at Boston University. On a visit to...

As new COVID-19 variants are detected in Australia and a wave of COVID cases spike again, researchers at the University of Sydney have teamed up with an international consortium to develop a low-cost variant proof COVID-19 vaccine with the help of US $19.3 million funding from The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.  To tell us more about the project, we are joined by Lead Investigato...

Heart attack caused by rupture of unstable plaque in the coronary arteries is the number one cause of death worldwide.  Melbourne-based medtech company Nirtek , is using laser technology discovered at the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, to develop the first intra-coronary guidewire device for the detection of unstable plaque to prevent heart attacks and save lives. Nirtek’s device has been awa...

As the world’s largest Biotech convention, BIO 2022 , gets underway in San Diego California after a 2 year hiatus due to pandemic restrictions, MTPConnect’s team is on the ground promoting Australian companies at the Australian Pavilion (led by AusBiotech ) and attending various events and meetings. In this pacey compilation, MTPConnect CEO Stuart Dignam catches up with the Hon. Stephen Dawson MLC...

The last few years have been dominated by the global fight against COVID-19 and research efforts continue in search of new treatments and vaccines to save lives. Melbourne-based Dimerix Bioscience is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company investigating a new treatment for respiratory complications as a result of COVID 19 – which was selected for inclusion in the global WHO-endorsed clinical st...

Around the world, approximately 16,500 people die from sudden cardiac arrest every day due to delayed access to a defibrillator. We speak with Donovan Casey, co-founder, CEO and Executive chairman of Rapid Response Revival, a Sydney based medical technology startup hoping to improve these odds of survival by developing CellAED - a life-saving portable defibrillator for use in homes, workplaces and...

Is your startup on a mission to address a major public health challenge? Do you need the know-how, guidance and connections to get investment-ready and rapidly grow?  MTPConnect co-hosts Caroline Duell and Dr Duncan Macinnis, Director Stakeholder Engagement for NSW and ACT, look into the unique Health 10X Accelerator delivered by the George Institute of Global Health and UNSW Founders, which is su...

We speak to Robert Yearsley, CEO and co-founder of ARIA Research , a company developing a new medical device - a non-surgical and non-invasive Electronic Vision Aid in the form of a pair of glasses - which enables blind and vision-impaired people to see through sound.  ARIA has been developed in collaboration with University of Sydney, University of Technology Sydney, Blind Citizens Australia and...

In the first face-to-face podcast interview since January 2020, we speak with Dr Mat McGann, co-founder and CEO of Health Horizon , a health innovation tracking and discovery platform - making it easy to follow the progress of medical innovations around the world. MTPConnect supported Health Horizon's development through the Growth Centre Project Fund in 2017. Co-hosts Caroline Duell and Eliz...

The show takes a look at how we can take more great Australian science from the lab bench into the boardroom. And create companies, jobs and products. Joining the podcast is Misha Schubert, Chief Executive Officer at Science & Technology Australia and Professor Mark Hutchinson, the new President at Science & Technology Australia. Science & Technology Australia (STA) is Australia’s peak...

The Clinical Translation and Commercialisation - Medtech (CTCM) program, delivered by MTPConnect, is offered under the 2020 Early Stage Translation and Commercialisation Support Grant of the Medical Research Future Fund's Medical Research Commercialisation Initiative. The $19.75 million CTCM program is targeting Australian small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and aims to boost commerciali...

We get an update on the development of Australia’s world-first Bionic Eye System. Similar to Cochlear’s bionic ear, it involves a visual implant to give functional vision to people who’ve lost their sight due to the genetic condition, Retinitis Pigmentosa.   The consortium behind this innovation, which has just been granted a Breakthrough Device designation from the US FDA, includes Bionic Vision...

For our first episode of 2022, we look into a new partnership between Perth-based oligonucleotides manufacturer SynGenis and Sydney-based diagnostic company SpeeDx.  WA start-up SynGenis is the brainchild of Professor Rakesh Veedu, a world-renowned oligonucleotide chemical biologist. Sydney-based SpeeDx, led by CEO Colin Denver, is a privately owned company spun out of Johnson and Johnson that dev...

Episode 118.  Ancient and New: WA’s Cliniface and Lyfe Languages Improving Indigenous Healthcare Through Technology The podcast visits Western Australia to find out how new technology like Artificial Intelligence is being used to improve healthcare for Indigenous Australians and those living in remote communities. Cliniface is delivering the world’s first 3D photo library of Aboriginal and Torres...

It’s World Antimicrobial Awareness Week and we are shining a light on Australia’s expertise and innovations to fight superbugs.  In this episode, hosts Caroline Duell and Dr Rebecca Tunstall, MTPConnect’s Senior Director of Stakeholder Engagement, catch up with BiomeBank, a company out of South Australia. As Australia's first public stool bank and a microbial therapeutics company, it is pione...

It’s World Antimicrobial Awareness Week 2021 and we are shining a light on Australia’s expertise and innovations to fight superbugs.  In this episode we catch up with Recce Pharmaceuticals, a company out of Western Australia that is pioneering the development and commercialisation of a new class of synthetic anti-infectives designed to overcome resistance. Its lead compound is the only synthetic p...

It’s World Antimicrobial Awareness Week and we are shining a light on Australia’s expertise and innovations to fight antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and superbugs.  In this episode, we catch up with LBT Innovations, a groundbreaking South Australian company designing advanced medical technologies that automate culture plate reading and improve medical diagnostic workflows.  Their Chief Executive Of...

It’s World Antimicrobial Awareness Week 2021 and we are shining a light on Australia’s expertise and innovations to fight antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and superbugs.  Joining our podcast host Caroline Duell is MTPConnect’s Director of Stakeholder Engagement for Queensland Andrew Bowskill, who is the co-chair of AAMRNet, Australia’s first industry led, multi-stakeholder Antimicrobial Resistance N...

We catch up with medtech start-up Coviu, the company behind a game-changing video telehealth software that is now being used by 65,000+ health professionals in Australia. Coviu recently took out two awards at the Australian Technologies Competition (ATC), an accelerator program that MTPConnect supports in partnership with the Australian Government’s Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Reso...

The Targeted Translation Research Accelerator (TTRA) initiative for diabetes and cardiovascular disease, supported by the Medical Research Future Fund, is providing a new integrated research program to improve the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and management of diabetes and cardiovascular disease (D&CVD) in Australia. The TTRA is calling for Expressions of Interest (EOI) for the second roun...

Dr Maheshi Ramasamy is a Principal Investigator at the Oxford Vaccine Group where she leads on adult clinical vaccine trials including the Oxford AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine trials. Dr Ramasamy joins the podcast from the UK to take us through the challenges of developing a successful international clinical trial against the clock during a fast-moving pandemic, her experiences as a clinician scien...