The new Jumar Bioincubator in Melbourne, Australia, takes its name from a mountaineering technique that enables climbers to make a swift, efficient ascent. In that spirit, the new biotech incubator aims to support innovative ventures as they advance discoveries that could become real-world breakthroughs for patients.
The facility’s official opening on 16 April was hosted by founding partners CSL, WEHI, and The University of Melbourne (UoM), as well as initial investor Breakthrough Victoria and operator Cicada Innovations. Jumar is already home to 16 early-stage ventures working on health issues across pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, medical devices, bioinformatics, health-related artificial intelligence (AI) and more.
Watch the video to learn more from Camille Shanahan, General Manager of the Jumar Bioincubator, and Dr. Andrew Nash, Chief Scientific Officer, Senior Vice President Head of Research at CSL.
“Successfully translating medical research into new therapies or technologies can be a long and arduous process,” Nash said. “As a home-grown success story that is a leader on the global stage, CSL recognizes our responsibility and is deeply committed to supporting the promising young biotechs coming out of Australia.”
Guests at the Jumar launch included biotech leaders in the Australian government, academia, business and research. They were introduced to companies already in residence, three of which are:
- Denteric, which is developing a therapeutic vaccine for the one billion people (one third of all adults) in the world suffering from periodontal gum disease - a disease that is also associated with diabetes, heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis, dementia and certain cancers;
- Ovulation bio-sensing startup Symex Labs, which has developed a wearable “lab-on-a-chip” solution that provides continuous “set-and-forget” monitoring of hormones to more conveniently and effectively predict ovulation for people wanting to conceive;
and
- Tessara Therapeutics, which is creating “mini brains” in test tubes through 3D neural micro-tissues that mimic the human brain and offer all the essential requirements for drug discovery, including dense and heterogeneous neural networks, compatibility with high-throughput automation, short generation time and high optical clarity.
