Description

Do you have an interest in science and entrepreneurship and are you thinking about what is next after your PhD? 

Innovation Forum Manchester in partnership with The North West Biotech Initiative are pleased to invite you to the event: From PhD to Start-Up

Hear three successful stories of PhD graduates which have set up their own start-up companies.

Key speakers:

Dr. Aled Deakin Roberts – CTO and founder, Deakin Bio-hybrid Materials

Aled completed his PhD on the development of new energy storage materials jointly at the University of Liverpool and the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE) in Singapore. Following this, he held several postdoctoral research positions at the University of Manchester working at the interface of synthetic biology and materials science. He is now a Research Fellow based at the Future Biomanufacturing Research Hub in Manchester. He established Deakin Bio-hybrid Materials in his spare time.

Dr. Chiara Heide – Founder, Brightcure Ltd

Chiara is the founder of BrightCure - a biotech company developing vaginal microbiome solutions for women suffering from urinary tract and intimate infections. She completed her undergraduate studies at the ETH (Switzerland), University of Potsdam (Germany) and UC Berkeley (US) before moving to London for her MSc in Advanced Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London. Chiara received a Marit Mohn Scholarship and did her PhD in Chemical Engineering developing a Cell-free protein synthesis platform to accelerate the screening of antibodies. During her time at Imperial she founded the WOMENinSTEM group at Imperial, a supporting network for female academics, for which the group received the Julia Higgins Medal, and a charity called Humans of Science, showcasing world-leading scientists to society.

Dr. Aranzazu Carmona Orbezo – Founder, Catalyse Clean Energy Underground & Deep Science Ventures

Aránzazu Carmona Orbezo is an Electrochemical Engineer from Mexico City. Her professional experience involves working with water treatment/desalination, process engineering and regulatory affairs. She is passionate about graphene, nanomaterials, and their potential applications in clean energy technologies. Currently, she is a resident entrepreneur at Deep Science Ventures, where she is leading a venture to develop new ways to decarbonise fossil fuel production at the source, processing them in the well or reservoir so that only a clean energy vector, such as hydrogen, is produced to the surface. Aranza is enthusiastic about learning and teaching, encouraging more girls to participate in STEM and advocating for the participation of scientists in public policy.