2017_01_20_CIE_ciencia_emprendimiento

Adrián Vallejo (Bio 14, MIB 15), Marta Román (MIB 15) and Diego Sucunza (Bio 13, MIB 15), graduates of the Master's Degree of research Biomedical of the School of Sciences, have received the support of Caja Rural through the Entrepreneurship Unit of the University to develop their project Scratchaid, a device that facilitates the recovery of biological material cultivated in the laboratory.

The three scientists, who are currently developing their work at the research center Médica Aplicada (CIMA), explain that the idea of creating Scratchaid arose jointly after taking different entrepreneurship courses, such as the YUZZ Santander, the Diploma of the School of Industrial Organization (EOI) and the Diploma of management and Creation of Biotechnology Companies, promoted annually by the School of Sciences.

The project, Adrián explains, "consists of the design, production and commercialization of a piece of laboratory -a cell scraper- that improves the times used in the current technique, guarantees greater reproducibility and all this at a lower cost". The researchers already have a working prototype that is giving very good results, as they confirm.

At the base of project is the need to speed up the execution of a technique that is "quite tedious at laboratory," adds Adrián. "This, added to the encouragement of entrepreneurship that we have received through the aforementioned diplomas, made us decide to promote Scratchaid." However, Adrián adds that the Master's Degree itself at research Biomedical has been the platform that has allowed them to meet and train "in an excellent way in the work daily laboratory, access doctorate and discover in the poyata plots of improvement that had not been explored".

Its plan with Scratchaid, in the medium term deadline, is to raise more funding and close the production processes of a small run of scrapers to test how the pieces are really received in the international market. "We are looking for partners or manufacturers that can produce the pieces under specific sterility standards and guarantee the necessary ISO certifications. In this goal we are relying heavily on the EntrepreneurshipUnit of the University of Navarra", Adrián concludes.